Why the Bailout Bill Failed

So how could a major bill described by the president and both parties' leaders as critical to the well-being of the nation's -- and the world's -- economy go down to defeat?

There are no easy answers here, as the House's stunning defeat moments ago of the financial bailout legislation is putting us into seemingly uncharted territory. But while the final tally, with 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats voting no, was a surprise -- all morning, Hill sources were predicting narrow passage -- the signs were there that the measure was in trouble:

1) Poor Salesmanship. Did you know that the general consensus is now that this bill will not cost $700 billion? If you didn't, it's because the bill's proponents did a poor marketing job. From the start, the Bush administration did not do enough to emphasize the point that taxpayers would get at least some of the money back, and that gigantic price tag got stuck in the head of the public (and the media).

The administration was also too eager and ambitious with its initial proposal, alienating many lawmakers right from the start by seeming to ask for the moon -- give us everything we want, with no oversight. This White House has long played political hardball, but this was not the time for hardball. This was the time for begging. The administration also let the "bailout" label stick to the package right from the start. By the time President Bush started calling it a "rescue" measure, it was too late.

2) Vulnerables Scared. If you have a difficult reelection race, what was your motivation to vote for this bill? "I voted in favor of a bill that I didn't really like, because I had no choice," doesn't make for a particularly snappy campaign slogan. "I stood up to my party and Wall Street," sounds much better. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) both made the argument that lawmakers needed to rise to the occasion and not think of their own political futures. But members of Congress ALWAYS think of their political futures. It's much easier to talk of sacrifice for the greater good when you're going to get reelected with 70 percent of the vote, like nearly every leader on both sides of the aisle will.

3) No Center of Gravity. Who's running Washington right now? Bush is the lamest of lame ducks, with a minuscule approval rating and no clout or political protection left to offer. Bush and Vice President Cheney were reportedly making calls to wavering Republicans right to the end; obviously that didn't do the trick. Barack Obama and John McCain both supposedly support the bill, but neither of them has been exactly wholehearted in their backing, and there haven't been any reports of either candidate calling members of their own party to lobby.

House leaders, meanwhile, did support the bill and did whip it. But this wasn't a party-loyalty vote; lawmakers were asked to vote yes, but they weren't threatened. They (probably) weren't bribed. Add all that up, and you had a power vacuum.

4) Ideological Problems. The simplest explanation of all for the loss was that a lot of members just didn't like the bill. Capitol Briefing outlined last week all the reasons why House conservatives balked at the initial proposal, and the basic point still stands: A massive expenditure of taxpayer funds and intervention in the free market, combined with tough new regulations, simply offended too many conservatives' most basic principles. And Republicans, being in the minority, feel no responsibility to govern. They calculated that the bill's failure will be blamed on Bush (so what?) and the majority Democrats.

On the liberal end of the spectrum, most members believe this really does represent a "bailout" of Wall Street and a power grab by the Bush administration, and that the current crisis vindicates their longtime warnings that the financial system was riven by greed and insufficient regulation. For those members, the final package didn't have nearly enough help for struggling homeowners.

5) Partisanship? House Republican leaders gave a press conference right after the vote, and they have strongly suggested that Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) floor speech toward the end of the debate was at least partly to blame for the loss. "I do believe we would have gotten there had the Speaker not made this partisan speech on the floor of the house," Boehner said.

It's too early to know whether Pelosi's speech, which laid much of the blame for the whole financial crisis at the foot of the Bush administration, really made much of a difference. But if several House Republicans actually did switch their votes on a momentous piece of legislation just because they were irritated by a speech, what does that say about them? As Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) mockingly characterized the GOP's argument: "Somebody hurt my feelings, so I'm going to punish the country."

It's possible despite weeks of warnings, and a stock market that is cratering as we speak, that a lot of members still aren't taking any of this seriously enough. And that, ultimately, may be the real reason for today's vote.

This vote is a victory for democracy, a victory of rationality over fear, a victory of the free market over crony capitalism. When the time is right, we can turn to helping homeowners with a aid package such as my proposal at http://www.berry2008.org/issues/rescue.html

I think there was a lot of resentment at the way ACORN was villified during the last 48 hours, plus the realization that Congress would be ceding its prerogative as holders of the economic purse strings to the executive branch.

This thing was doomed when Paulson slapped down his ludicrous 3-page demand to become a 4th and superceding branch of government. People are still thinking of this deal as a 700 Billion dollar entitlement to Wall Street with zero supervision---because that is exactly what Bush and Paulson told us we absolutely had to do.

I think there's a very easy reason as to why the bill failed: Leadership, up and down the ranks, on both sides of the aisle, any way you cut it.

For as much of a bipartisan-supported bill this was touted as, there was as much bipartisan indignation toward it. Nearly everyone across the United States thinks this is a bad idea, no matter how many Main Street goodies you add to it for an election-year crisis bill. All the add-ons did nothing to stem the idea of a large bubble of power divested from the Congress and into a single office within the executive branch.

I wouldn't harp on democrat or republican leadership, they were equally dismal. At a time of potential crisis, when usually a president should speak out in a nonpartisan -- American -- way, he did not. If you could call his statements this morning and last Wednesday thus, they certainly came too little and too late.

But I'm not pessimistic. There has got to be a solution to evaporating liquidity out there. We're Americans. We can figure this stuff out.

I believe that the bill failed because Representatives were getting feedback from their voters that was strongly against it. One news story talked about a 50 to 1 ratio against it for one Representative. Look at that number and the number of days left before the election and I think you have your answer.

Paulson has said that he anticipates spending about $50 billion a month on the bailout. Maybe it's time for him to be given funds to cover part of the needs between now and the end of February. That will allow for a maturing of ideas and put the long term tasks in the hands of the new Congress and Administration.

I cannot believe that partisan bickering is costing me my 401(k) and just evaporated my parents retirement money. Can someone please explain to these idiots that if they don't do something to help NOW, we are all going down. They can go scapegoat hunting afterwards.

Do you mean to tell me that 129 Republicans voted against a bill that their President says was crucial to the well being of the world economy because of something Nancy Pelosi said. This is ridiculous.

it's a great victory if you don't want a mortgage, or a car loan or a credit card or a healthy economy. Dissenters just cut off their nose to spite their face. As the recession deepens I hope those so called leaders can live with themselves.

Much blame to be cast here at Wall Street, regulators, politicians...too bad people can't stop pointing fingers long enough to do the right thing to help alleviate the crisis.

You left out Reason #6: This was a bad bill that did NOT address the root cause of the crisis in the credit markets. Overpaying for toxic mortgage securities is not going to address the indebtedness of the U.S. consumer, will not address higher energy prices, will not address stagnant wages or huge student debt overhangs or plunging house prices - all significant reasons that these loans can no longer be serviced.

Passing this "rescue" might have allowed a few critical banking institutions a few more weeks to set their house in order and loot the financial system a little longer before the inevitable crash. It would NOT have aided the country in the longer term.

i am staggered at the stupidity being exhibited as it pertains to this issue. Mark my words: once many of you see your financial future threatened or your are unable to get credit, you will be screaming for this very same Congress to do something.

Without MAJOR changes to banking structures this in only another wasted bailout, until next time. the boom/bust structure remains intact, The Chicago Plan of 1933 should be seriously looked at and our economy restructred to give real results not more Washinton eyewash to allow ever more corrution and monitary flim flam.

This vote ISN'T a victory for anything or anybody. Regardless of who got greedy, who got rich, who bought a big house they couldn't afford or who racked up a mountain of debt, the ENTIRE economy is sinking. I'm not afraid for my personal well-being because I was able to make some wise decisions and I've been fortunate enough to build a good cushion for myself. However, the majority of American families are not able to say the same. I'm worried about them. I'm willing to help my fellow Americans by putting my taxes on the line (and I pay plenty!). So, can we stop pointing the finger at the "guilty" and work together to get out of the mess?

ACORN vilified? Say it isn't so. What a great, non-partisan organization who happens to back and pay back Obama for his legal support. Oh, and ACORN Housing strong-armed lending institutions into extending subprime mortgages to people who didn't qualify, which led to the financial meltdown. Don't forget the numerous lawsuits and prosecutions occuring in multiple states for voter fraud. Did I mention the taxpayer pays for these wonderful organizations? But, ACORN is not entirely to blame. Reid, Pelosi, Raines, Dean, and the rest of the Dems who blocked attempts to regulate Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, there's enough blame to spread around, isn't there? And Obama says there's no need to point fingers.

This has been a culture of extreme power concentration and unfairness for years--at least since the 2000 election, when the candidate who received the majority of the votes was not the winner. Then in the narrow 2004 election, Bush announced that he had a mandate to do whatever he wanted, further enraging his opponents.

I think voting down this bill will make the coming recession harder for middle-class people, but it's understandable in view of the frustration and sense of powerlessness as the cities have deteriorated, tales of corruption in high places abound, and the government has seemed completely out of reach.

If this was the wrong time to say "no," that's going to be hard. But people desperately, furiously needed to say that "no." That's a sorry tale of poor government and a society slipping from democracy to oligarchy in a very few years.

The good news is that the House rejected the idiot bailout, or as Pelosi has been duped into thinking, "buy in." I am not "buyin" it,
and neither are those in congress who can actually think, rather than follow wall street swindlers like sheep. Meanwhile, the dollar is up against other currencies and that will make the things we buy cheaper. Yay, congress. JUST SAY NO to the bailout (that's buy in, Madam Speaker).

Dig beneath the surface of the polls showing opposition and it shows most Americans recognize the need for something to be done. Sure, there's a vocal group that opposes ANY bailout but I bet most people will grudgingly and bitterly go along with a bailout that actually helps both lenders AND borrowers. This bill wasn't it; it was tilted so heavily in favor of lenders that it was a joke. Borrowers simply got a "promise" for assistance; no guarantees, just a promise. Common sense provisions like bankruptcy law changes weren't included. The executive compensation limitations were full of loopholes so that it wouldn't have affected anybody. People pick up on this one-sidedness and no amount of bluster and the sky is falling doomsday warnings can remove the stink. Pass a bill that has REAL benefits for borrowers and really extracts some penalties from the firms and people who created this mess. Then you'll get the votes to pass it.

The House did the right thing by voting this power grab down! The economic crisis has been greatly exagerated. Once the banks understand the govt. won't let them pass off their bad investments and loans, then the banks will solve this problem themselves. The solvent ones will take over the insolvent and business will go on. We're not on the precipice of another Great Depression, that's just a bunch of fear mongering, a la Iraq. Same old playbook being trotted out, but this time they've cried Wolf once too much. Congrats to Congress, the House mainly, for standing firm.

Many people are just so tired of the filth that run this country, they're willing to endure a little hardship to see the slimeballs grovelling in the sewer. We peons will get along just fine, like we always have. The people who really suffer will be the ones who deserve to. And when it's all over, we can rebuild this depraved country the way it should have been before it was trashed by a bunch of self-righteous judeo-christian crooks.

I hope all of you who are hailing the defeat of this bill are still as smug and arrogant when a year from now you are stading in a bread line with a wheel barrow full of your life savings tring to buy a loaf of bread. This is a disaster... and you people simply do not get it!

I dont think many people completely understand the situation. The details of this bill and the potential impact that it could cause on our economy arent fully realized by the general concensus. Im a banker and I STILL dont support this bill.

Everyone I've talked to is glad it got voted down, even if it means the economy tanks. Comments above seem to run the same way. Get the CEO golden parachute clause out, and it will go a long way to making people feel that wall street is serious.

I would write the bailout bill this way... CEO's of these companies will go to jail for a long time period! What does the FBI need to say that a crime was comitted? Ask yourself what would happen if we didn't pay our bills or frauded big business. At the very least our credit rating would be ruined. I would also have big business forgive 30 to 40 percent of main streets debt. I would then slowly role out bail out funds as needed. I'm quite sure that would give an immediate and long term boost to our failing economy!

I got to be honest, this bill will has to go through eventually. Nobody in America likes this bill but it has to be past. This isn't a joke or scam for taxpayer money. Our credit crisis is real. If you understand the economics of this problem, you know that we are on the brink of real economic depression, not merely a "slowdown". I'm a liberal. I hate these Wall St. thugs. But, we have to do something before this gets out of control.

Pelosi's observations may have been right in her speech leading up to the vote, but saying the things she did, when she did was just plain stupid. I hope I never hear the word "diplomacy" roll off of her lips in the future. It may be in her vocabulary, but she does not have a clue. Sometimes the best thing you can say is nothing. Sometimes there is value in winning graciously. I used to think that Tom Delay was the worst Speaker I had ever seen. Nancy almost makes him look competent.

I kind of liked the proposal of giving the money to us. Let us pay our bills and mortgages off(would be nice since I was not one of the stupid who bought way more than they could chew). No way should we bailout those companies and we end up doing it. We should get every dime back with interest.

Congressional naysayers are happy to keep American anger directed at Wall Street for now.

But it's going to backfire on them bigtime.

Sooner or later, there will be a complete investigation of how all this occured and the sniffers will eventually catch up to the thieving, unscrupulous Capitol gang who gave birth to mountains of bad legislation, campaign payoffs and lack of oversight.

There were 129 republicans that voted against the bill and 95 Democrats. Before Speaker Pelosi made her over the top partisan attack on the Republicans (less than 3 days after saying we should put partisanship aside on this issue) there were only 105 republicans opposed. Earlier today there were only 94 opposed until Senator Obama comes out and says he should get credit for the bill but not Senator McCain. Partisanship killed the bailout and the Democrats led by Pelosi and Obama should get the credit for its death as much as the Republican and Democratic representatives who voted against it.

This all goes back to fundamental greed and power amongst our leaders in both private financial institutions and policy. All this could have been prevented if the so called "stewards" of our country and businesses were doing just that. They all should be held accountable for NOT doing for what they have been generouly paid to do do for the last decade. I was out of work a couple of times and nobody volunteered to pay my mortgage,,,I worked at whatever jobs I could to hold onto my home. Let the survival begin. Tough lessons to learn by but hoepfully this will be forever indelibly inscribed in your brain about what is TOO good to be true USUALLY is.

This economic mess is brought on by the idiology of the Republican Party whose leaders stole billions and gave billions of our hard earned tax money to their billionaire bossom bodies especially John McCain the King of deregulation who is now disgustingly pretending to be a regulator. The Republicans have accomplished their mission; bankrupt the country and the common man, destroy all of our safety net programs for the elderly and the middle class and enrich them selves while in control. They shall suffer at the poll for what they have done.

Washington got something right. It's called living with the consequences. If you take the risk you need to accept the failure. Money isn't free. As far as 401k, your safer having a sound market than an artificial one. Short term thinking is a good way to find a dead end.

It appears this bill was defeated by a bipartisan majority, the house Republicans couldn't do it alone. I think the voice of the people has been heard on this issue, and what was that voice saying? Our federal government has been crying "WOLF" for so long, that we the people have completely lost faith in the honesty and competence of our government and would rather take our chances and let the crisis run its course than let our government take a bad situation and make it worse by throwing money at it.

Many are upset because no one is being held accountable for destroying the American Economy. This was not an accident, it is the result of greed and arrogance and playing the public as gullible, which we are.

Nobody wanted this bill, and yes Wall Street and the CEO's should suffer and pay. However, we don't want things to get more difficult for the middle class while the markets adjust. The idea is to ease the pain and get the money back. If we need to 'throw the bums out' start with the House Republicans, who all of a sudden seem interested in the middle class. Give us a break, since that's not what history shows. Start cleaning out the hypocrites among the House Republicans. Political manuvering while the citizens suffer. Like little kids. Some leaders.

I think the reason this bill failed was that its proponents relied on fear mongering to scare people into supporting it, instead of explaining why they thought we were on the cusp of a Great Depression, and why buying $700B worth of mortgage backed securities would prevent it.

Also, average people look around see folks with no money down ARMs, constantly refinancing their homes to purchase the luxuries. I think the administration needs to confront that issue because, in a lot of people's minds, that seem untenable, and the bailout seems like it would encourage even more of that behavior.

I'm sure this bill will come up again, so maybe the next President will do a better job of selling it.

The sad truth is that pass or not, the bailout bill still didn't hold truly accountable those directly responsible for the meltdown, e.g., the investment bankers on Wall Street that have walked away with millions. Those are the ones that should be fined and do jail time. Meanwhile, the rest of the investor class, small business owners and ordinary Americans will suffer the consequences, whatever they might be. The world won't end, but many folks will suffer for a long time. Great Depression, anyone?

Now you know the proportion of elected leaders who do the thing that will actually do the right thing in a crisis, and not balk because the right thing isn't ideologically-sound or popular in their district:

Slightly less than half.

Hey, I'm pretty left-wing. I understand not being too excited there if you're, you know, way off the deep end over there. But you're being about as left-wing or "power to the people" as Herbert Hoover if you're seriously complaining about this! Go look up Huey Long's filibuster of Glass-Steagall, or opposition to the National Recovery Administration, if you want to see where knee-jerk anti-corporatism goes sour.

This bill is a good idea because without it, the financial system is going to freeze, that's going to stop investment, raise the cost of doing business, and stop corporate expansion. This will cause a negative business cycle, and huge layoffs will result. We're not bailing out anyone: We're 1. making good on investmnent we're ALREADY MAKING when we bail out companies, and 2. we're having government take on a liability that most agree will result in at least a slight positive return in a few years.

Renegotiating mortgages is a nice idea, and should happen too, but if banks keep writing off these mortgages at fire-sale prices, someone will get rich. It won't be the average American, it will be some speculator.

If Clinton had not put pressure on the Lending Institutions to "almost Give money away" to "Disadvantaged/ unqualified Borrowers" so that they could own their homes then they the lenders would not have tempted the greedy borrowers to feed at the trough.. Now the Feds had to Bail out AIG because most of the Fed Employee benefit packages are with AIG.. Hmmm

Bush in 2003 and 2005 along with McCain tried to curb the give away.. but were put down by the Democrats so the give away went on .. un abaited..

Now Nancy P. is blaming Bush.. when in fact it is the DEMOS who got us into this in the first place.. I guess the best defense is Blame the other guy loud and often and first.. so that all real responsibility can be deflected..

Evil Wall Street isn't the only one to blame for this. There are lots of individuals who took on way more debt than they could afford to buy a house, or buy a bigger house. There are folks who took equity out of their high priced homes via home equity or bigger mortgages. There's congress and the SEC who didn't regulate the credit default swap market or the ability of small non-bank financial companies (like countrywide - all of which are now gone) to write mortgages, often times without any scruples... there's lots to blame here and until people realize we're all in a pickle together nothing will be fixed. This market's going to hell destroying our retirement savings and housing values along with it. Something needs to be done immediately. Most individuals don't begin to understand the finance behind the issues and headlines blaming wall street alone are just not helpful.

The Democrats have shamelessly demagogued this situation. Yet, come January 20, they are likely to control both the White House and the Congress. Why would anyone want to give this kind of authority to the Obama administration? Intitially, they tried to turn the bailout bill itself into a slush fund for their political supporters.

We're not in a depression, as I've heard some say. It's barely a recession, maybe.

Many Americans are still making discretionary purchases. Football stadiums are full, people are going to movies, and the social centers where people hang out are full--they're just not spending quite as much.

People must not really be familiar with real sacrifice and hardship. Maybe we should all do some research on what it was like to live in the Dustbowl during the Great Depression, what is was like picking cotton as a slave, or even what it's like for an orphan in Uganda today breaking stones in a quarry with the nub of a hammer to make gravel for less than a dollar a day.

Most of us don't have to grow and harvest our food, slaughter our meat; or do any of the real work that our anscestors had to do almost daily. Children no longer slave away in dangerous coal mines or textile factories.

While it's possible that our solons aren't taking this problem seriously, I suspect the bill failed because

1. George Bush said it was a great idea. This would be the same George who said that Iraq harbored WMD and Al Quaeda, and the same man who helped shove thru the odiously misnamed USA Patriot Act and the repellent "Department of Homeland Security" and the ridiculous Transportation Security Agency, and who thought that torturing non combatants was perfectly OK.

2. George Bush's minions thought it was a great idea, particularly the last three lines of the original proposal which said no oversite, no legal action, no congressional review.

3. The people who will actually have to PAY for this extravagant bailout said NO.

The notion that deregulation caused this is BS. The fact is that the regulation in place was ineffectual. We don't need more ineffectual oversight like the Dems propose. Is it any surprise that the least regulated of all (i.e. Hedge Funds) made it out fine, but those who are heavily regulated (i.e Fannie and Freddie) are the ones who failed?

The bottom line here is the majority of Democrats voted for this bill and the majority of Republicans voted against it. The Conservatives shown through as true friends of the taxpayer

So, seriously, a bunch of GOP pissy butt-boys are hurt because of this? :

"Today, we will act to avert this crisis, but informed by our experience of the past eight years with the failed economic leadership that has left us left capable of meeting the challenges of the future. We choose a different path. In the new year, with a new Congress and a new president, we will break free with a failed past and take America in a new direction to a better future."

But honestly, that doesn't explain why only 65 Republicans voted for the bill. Pelosi had, at one point, been looking for 100 Republicans to join a majority of Democrats to pass it; instead, 133 of them voted against it. Republican leaders say Pelosi failed to bring along enough Democrats to pass the legislation, but if Blunt and John Boehner and their colleagues in the Republican leadership had done what Pelosi did -- and gotten a majority of their caucus to support the bill -- it would have passed easily. Blunt said he expected 12 more votes from the GOP caucus; the bill would have failed by one vote if that had happened.

I was waiting for Ben "I am basically clueless" Pershing to blame Republicans. Hey Dems, when you cannot even get 40% of your own to vote for the bill, what does that say. Where was Barry Obama with his new kind of politics and bringing people together on this. Seems to me all the Dems needed was a little backing from Barry. The Dems did not need the Republicans on this one. They could have passed a bill and stuffed it down the throat of the House Republicans. Common Barry, why didn't you get some Dems to vote for the bill with you ability to bring people together.

Maybe they did vote against for wrong reasons, but they still made the right choice. I'll take my chances with no action over government action every time. What has the government been able to do properly in the last 30 years? Nothing. They muddle through every endeavor at best. Let the market destroy the greedy and poorly run businesses. Let foreclosures occur on those who didn't think before they bought (home ownership is not a right and if you used a variable rate mortgage or interest only balloon shame on you for being stupid and/or greedy). Let the market make its correction, for good, bad or terrible.

I can only shake my head as commenters fail to realize that the underpinnings of our entire economy are at risk here - yes, a lot of rich people made a lot of bad decisions and should be held accountable. We should be angry at them. But objecting to this bill because of that anger is naive and dangerous.

As a U.S. soldier, I am *definitely* not rich. But you know what? Rich people are integral to our economy, running many of the business that create jobs and the financial institutions that allow businesses to function. Obviously, many people were greedy and shortsighted here. But celebrating the fact that some House members worried about their re-election more than the fate of our economy as some kind of victory for populism is completely off-base.

"What will happen if nothing happens? A lot of rich people get poor. Sounds good to me."

No, what will happen is businesses won't be able to get loans and will start laying people off. The economy ties us all together. Besides, do you think preventing already-wealthy people from making MORE money is going to help anything? It's too late! They're already rich! Get over the neener-neener class warfare and focus on what will solve the problems these people created. It isn't fair that we have to clean up their mess, but it is reality, and a failure to confront that reality will just make it worse.

As an older retiree you learn to live within your means and look to your future security and not have to have the biggest house and the two SUV's in the driveway and a car for each kid to drive to school.

American people are greedy and want everything and when they have problems they cry help to the government.

Look out for your own house first and help your neighbors.
We are still the greatst country in the world and we will survive this as we have survived many problems in our history.

Nancy Pelosi is a freaking IDIOT! After the house republicans obtained the votes necessary to pass the package, she went and gave a hugely inflammatory speech which alienated them. "This is nothing compared to the failed economic policies of Bush" yada - totally injecting politics - what an idiot Hell, I am an independent and it alienated ME. STUPID,STUPID and ridiculously partisan. Where did you get this fool? She has singlehandedly produced the lowest rated congress in recent history and now she has potentially destroyed markets all over the world. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO GET RID OF HER ??????????????????
It was in the bag until she opened her mouth. Her speech is posted on Cspan, utube, etc.

Bethesda, MD:
"I cannot believe that partisan bickering is costing me my 401(k) and just evaporated my parents retirement money. Can someone please explain to these idiots that if they don't do something to help NOW, we are all going down. They can go scapegoat hunting afterwards. "

Sorry for the news flash, but placing ALL your retirement into what amounts to legalized betting is a RISK.
Think of it this way: if you go to a casino and lose your mortgage payment, the casino is not responsible to pay your mortgage.

A whole load of people are losing money right now - my parents, your parents, myself, you - how many millions of others?

This won't last forever. There will be pain - but better a quick, painful correction then a long painful one.

This has nothing to do with being able to sell this. For once the representatives might actually be listening to their consitutents and not to the special interest groups that bought their soul.

Many of us who are against this are already living out of our cars and eating at homeless shelters so what more can we lose?

I cannot support any Rescue package until there is a recognition that Americans do not have a right to cheap and easy credit. There is not one Constitutional Amendment nor is it in the Bill Of Rights that American Businesses and Citizens have the right to cheap and easy credit.

Cheap and easy credit is what got us into these dire straits and this bill was just another indication that the Bush administration and many in Congress believe that the party should continue AS-Is. The only sacrifice was CEO golden parachutes.

Businesses that need "payday" loans need to be out of business. If you are operating on that thin a margin, you are not a good business person and I don't care where you bought your pedigree from.

I resent being held hostage and threatened by my government. Today's vote in the House may indicate some representatives wish to quell the domestic problems (protests that left unchecked will become violent) rather than fuel Wall Street's addiction to cheap easy credit.

Look at individual stocks - the banks and financial firms that did not make mis-steps - their stocks are down only slightly - this is the free market system - let those who exercised sound judgement and made prudent decisions survive - and those who didn't fail - the US economy is resilient enough such that the failed firms will very quickly be replaced by those with better judgement

I was waiting for Ben "I am basically clueless" Pershing to blame Republicans. Hey Dems, when you cannot even get 40% of your own to vote for the bill, what does that say. Where was Barry Obama with his new kind of politics and bringing people together on this. Seems to me all the Dems needed was a little backing from Barry. The Dems did not need the Republicans on this one. They could have passed a bill and stuffed it down the throat of the House Republicans. Common Barry, why didn't you get some Dems to vote for the bill with you ability to bring people together.

I hope the Representatives in Congress who voted against this are the first ones who get letters from the credit card companies telling them their accounts have been closed and the plastic they own is just that.

To those who aren't getting it: It's going to be fun going back to the barter system. Have fun growing your own crops.

We're not in a depression, as I've heard some say. It's barely a recession, maybe.

Many Americans are still making discretionary purchases. Football stadiums are full, people are going to movies, and the social centers where people hang out are full--they're just not spending quite as much.

People must not really be familiar with real sacrifice and hardship. Maybe we should all do some research on what it was like to live in the Dustbowl during the Great Depression, what is was like picking cotton as a slave, or even what it's like for an orphan in Uganda today breaking stones in a quarry with the nub of a hammer to make gravel for less than a dollar a day.

Most of us don't have to grow and harvest our food, slaughter our meat; or do any of the real work that our anscestors had to do almost daily. Children no longer slave away in dangerous coal mines or textile factories.

I hope all of you who are hailing the defeat of this bill are still as smug and arrogant when a year from now you are stading in a bread line with a wheel barrow full of your life savings tring to buy a loaf of bread. This is a disaster... and you people simply do not get it!
Posted by: Jim | September 29, 2008 3:34 PM
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Pelosi has failed as a leader. She could not even convice more than 70% of her party members to side with her. I listen to the pronouncement of the leaders of both parties, especially after te outcome of the vote. They are all too partisan. They seem to have forgotten that country comes before party.

"Some even believe we (Rockefeller family) are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - One World, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."
- David Rockefeller, Memoirs, 2002

When you don't know what to do, the best thing is to do nothing. Nobody seemed to know exactly what the $700 billion would do, nor how it would do it.

If I'm sending my child off to college I don't say here is a lump sum for college. Make it last. Rather I provide the money on an "as needed" basis.

We should not be providing a lump sum to government to address individual crisis that may or may not happen. We should give larger financial institutions the opportunity to purchase failing institutions, and have the government intervene only on a case by case basis.

And we need to go after anyone who broke the criminal law in this matter and send them off to prison for a long time. They have damaged our nation beyond Al Quieda's wildest dreams.

What Americans fail to notice is that the engine of the economy in this country is credit. Wall Street was a party zone for many years playing with other's peoples money but the fact of the matter remains that without credit no business can survive, and this Bill -call it bailout, or rescue plan- was aimed at providing confidence to the financial sector and to investors so that the money can start flowing once again. Yes! It needs to be passed, no we can not afford the blame games now. Modifications can be made so as to inject tax dollars in the ownership side of these failed banks thus allowing the government a share in the wealth until it can recover the losses and then sell the shares back to the private sector. There are more than one way to cook a rabbit. But that it needs to be cooked is unescapeable. Failure to do so will take both the finacial system and millions of American families livelihoods down with it. The Great Depression is just the right way to put it. Nobody who lived through it wants to see it happening again. I call on the American people to demand leadership from their representatives and ask for a fair and quick bipartisan agreement. Our life savings are ridding on it!!!

Voting taxpayers are sick to death of having to foot the bill for Congressional excesses and wasteful government stupidity. Some Congressmen and women apparently understand this and voted to bail out the taxpayers for a change.

For those worried about their 401(k) and other retirement funds, it's always seemed ridiculous to me that we trust our future to something that only has value in our opinion of it. This giant pyramid scheme was going to fail someday.

Besides, there's enough money held by the super rich, the one's who are playing this game anyway, to pay for all of this. They just don't want to be poor like the rest of us.

This is not a bailout and will not cost us $700B. It's not about saving Wall St.

This is a way to keep credit and cash moving in the economy. I don't work on Wall Street but did take Finance and Economics 101. Every small, medium and large companies depend on a working financial system - and guess what - it's not working. Hopefully, people remember how "stupid" they thought this was when they're lined up at soup kitchens and homeless shelters once the economy collapses.

Anyone with a job? Anyone with a 401k or pension plan? Think your not impacted by the financial market? Then you're blind.

There's a difference in doing what's easy and doing what's right

The politicians panning this are simply playing to populists angst and are too scared of losing their own jobs to do what's right.

It's time to lose ideology, partisan politics and re-election finger pointing and show some real leadership. Do the the tough thing and right the ship. Or we'll all drown.

People better wake up and smell the stench, first of all if you think this bailout was not for anyone but fat cats, better look at your retirement, mine is tanking and I've got about six years to retirement. The GOPERS got their feelings hurt because Nancy made a speech, McLame said the press is mean to Palin, McLame the great was suppose to have ridden into D.C. and made everything better! The problem with our country is it's been dumbed down by reality television and people vote for who their pastor tells them, or their family. Nobody can think for themselves anymore. We are on a sinking ship and out of tape people. The Bush administration and the great Republican NO Regultion group as well as a good many Democrats who sat on their hands are to blame. Nobody is talking about the elephant in the room IRAQ! It's been costing this country ten billion a month for the biggest fiasco next to Vietnam. Eleven trillion dollars that's what our national debt will be. We are in a mess, it's time for solutions, and I for one really don't give a flying monkey's butt who's feelings get hurt! My fifteen year old grandson could run this country better!
I know one thing, a Republican will never get a vote from me in the future ever. If Graham wants to know who the whinners are, you saw them all today on television!

What most do not understand is that the credit markets are in profound chaos and panic. Right now, we are in deep crisis, and finding fault is not the point at the moment. The financial body is not stable. Intervention is needed now, or shock to the system is inevitable. Every day of delay of the bailout will seep deeper and deeper into the real economy of main street. But, since the same electorate that cheers the bailout failure is the same electorate that put Bush into office for 8 years, (and now backs MeCain/Palin), this madness will probably continue until real damage is done to the economy. The irony of the whole thing is that the very same people voting for Bush, supporting McCain/Palin and cheering the failure of the bailout to pass, are the very same people who--eventually--will be absolutely devastated financially by this charade of events. But, as Forest Gump says "Stupid is as Stupid Does".

Now the Republicans have to swallow that RAGANomics don't work. Instead of "trickle down", we were Trickled on. My fear, had this passed is that the Government has a history of paying up to $600.00 for a toilet seat. What would they have paid for a whole house. The return on this "ionvestment" would have been years away. And, in the meantime, we would have suffered anyway.

Congress needs to enact a wise and just bill, to prevent greater economic difficulties. However, irresponsible, greedy borrowers, lenders, speculators and Wall Street companies should not be rewarded for their misguided actions. The bailout bill virtually completely repudiates the idea of responsibility for individuals and institutions in taking imprudent financial risks.

The vast majority of people in this country pay their mortgages and other debt, without assuming debts they can not repay. Why should these Americans, who are financially responsible, pay the bill to subsidize those individuals, institutions and speculators who were not financially responsible? I think this is the main reason why the majority of people seem to be opposed to the bill defeated in the House of Representatives.

Wall Street seems to believe its institutions can essentially get away with exceedingly reckless financial behavior, with very little or no government oversight and regulations, and then be rescued by the federal government. This is a classic example of corporate welfare.

A more comprehensive and fair bill is needed. Hardworking taxpayers who are financially responsible should get something tangible out of this, in the form of another round of tax rebates and/or reductions in income taxes for housholds earning under $100,000 annually. There also should be new regulations, including common sense rules about persons who receive mortgages in the future, including minimum 20% down payments and only allowing fixed rate mortgages, so people will not have increasing interest rates within a few years.

Whatever misgivings any one may have about the bail out,the point is we are in a situation where we do not have a choice.If the banks fail it will be at a worse cost than what this bailout may have done.While it is true that past mistakes especially in the last 8 years have brought us to this state,it is our obligation to see reason and support the amemnded bail out bill.The irony is the republicans who have supported deregulation and have been responsible for the downturn have not taken the support of Democrats to infact "bail them out 'from the consequences of their hard headed policies!It is like the Iraq war.Whether we agree with the war or not we still have to fund the troops till they come home to avert a diaster. The democrats did that while registering their protest.The republicans who have been the reason for the failure of the Wall Street with savings of ordinary Americans being wiped out now want to give the impression that they are against what they spin as the Wall Street rescue while it is an essential step to the Main Street rescue.While it is not a smart move It smacks all the way of " Politics first".

I am pessimistic for our future if what we experienced today is the best that Congress can do. America's economy is teetering near collapse and all we hear is continuing partisan rancor. I expect to read wrong-headed analysis in the commentary following the article. However, this is a time for Congressmen to be patriots and vote for what will help the vast majority of Americans. I pray that economic collapse is not out fate. If that is true, then al Queda has gotten what they wanted without exploding a single bomb. With our greed, hubris, and bickering nature, we will have destroyed ourselves.

I sure wish I knew as much as the people posting comments that the "buy in" was the only thing we could rationally do, or the "bailout" was the most stupid thing Congress could possibly do. What I do know is I am near retirement age, my wife is not far behind, and the money we put in our 401's at the beginning of each month is worth less at the end of the month. At this rate, we will be able to retire about ten years after we die.

Pelosi and Barney Frank and Maxine Waters,and the rest of these fools supporting this travesty CAUSED this problem. who the hell are they to blame anyone else?
You'll never hear it from the media, and certainly not before the election, but the truth is out there if you spend five minutes on the internet looking for it.

A bad bill failed. That's all. If Congress announces they're packing up and heading home then it will be time to get pissed off and worried. But just maybe the failure of a bill that no one outside of the Bush Administration likes (if anyone really liked it would have passed) will be a launch pad for cooler heads to come up with a better plan.

Oh, and Ben yeah I knew the bill would dole out the cash incrementally as opposed to issuing a check for 700B but the consensus also seems to be that Paulson's plan even with the modifications would have likely required an even Trillion or more.

Personally I want to see something that addresses the moral hazard issue and includes the tax hikes and spending cuts needed to pay for itself.

jh said: "Over 150 of the top economists in this country AGREE that it is WRONG on every level!!"

Do you have any idea how many "top economists" there are in this country? Or that maybe, just maybe, over 150 agree this is the RIGHT thing to do? Have you read anything, or do you only need 150 people to agree to make it right?

People act like these things haven't happend before: there is a big boom in one part of the economy and then it turns out that investors overestimated the value and then comes a bust. People couldn't honestly have belived that their house would keep doubling in value every 5 years or that they could afford balloning mortgage payments. I'm a young person in college and I don't think that I, or any responsible person, should have to end up paying for the bad judgements of Wallstreet investors or people who's house has forclosed on their house. As for retirees once again: this has happened before, learn from what has happened just about every decade since the 70's and plan accordingly.

I think it's pretty simple: TRUST. The trust of the nation has been betrayed so often and so deeply by this administration that we don't believe anything the administration tells us, but especially when the initial request is for no supervision or accountability = "transparency". Voters and legislators agree: we can come up with a better solution with more teeth that MOST of us can live with--they fashioned this in a few days; they can do better than this by Friday!

"Several Republican aides said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had torpedoed any spirit of bipartisanship that surrounded the bill with her scathing speech near the close of the debate that blamed Bush's policies for the economic turmoil.

Without mentioning her by name, Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., No. 3 Republican, said: "The partisan tone at the end of the debate today I think did impact the votes on our side."

Pelosi is dumb. No one is buying the lie that Bush policies are responsible for the meltdown (except the koolaid drinkers). Anyone paying attention is learning that Fannie/Freddie's loosening lending standards is at the root of the problem that caused the subprime meltdown.

Americans are not stupid, but we voted for these people that forced the banks to loosen their standards. We should not reward them for causing this crisis. The republicans tried in 2004 and 2006 to tighten regulation of Fannie and Freddie and the Dems blocked them. Voting for Obama/Dodd/Frank is voting for these same disaterous policies that are now having a calamitous effect on the world markets. Time for the truth. Get rid of Pelosi.

It does make sense that the Government absorb these toxic assets since they are the ones that forced the banks to loosen their standards. Now we all have to pay but don't put these same people back in office again. They are only deceiving the public.

If Democrat Pelosi convinced a Republican congressional delegation to vote against a Republican bailout bill, in a speech that recommended passage of that bill, then Pelosi must have discovered anti-gravity and turned political lead into gold. Either that, or somebody's been smokin' somethin'.

Here was the vote on the bailout bill:

* Republicans: 65 For; 132 Against;
* Democrats: 141 For; 94 Against

Hmmm....Wouldn't it be a tiny bit more logical to blame the Republican's failure to support their own President Bush on an influence within their own party? Like John McCain's urging to vote the bill down so that Obama could be blamed? If you don't think this is credible, check out what McCain is saying right now...

This has to be one of the most naive columns/blogs I've read, which is saying a lot. The bill did not fail because of partisanship. Indeed, gathering 228 votes to shoot down this bill required a thoroughly bi-partisan effort.

And it did not fail because lawmakers aren't taking the crisis seriously enough. Perhaps a lack of salesmanship was part of it, but to use a now well-worn Washington expression, you can't put lipstick on a pig.

Face it: even with the safeguards and oversight measures, this bill amounted to giving the Treasury broad decision-making powers and to handing Wall Street risk-takers a financial windfall. When Wall Street gains 50% in a year, these same people buy $20-million dollar homes, vacation condos, and extra cars and other toys, and promptly retire. When they screw up, taxpayers are supposed to cushion the blow?

Yes, average Americans stand to lose a lot in a stock meltdown, too, but as long as we make Wall Street a no-risk venture for these traders, they will continue to treat it like candyland, causing booms that line their pockets and then demanding bailouts in the ensuring, inevitable busts.

Enough already! House members at least have the courage to admit that this bailout stinks to high heaven, and I will gladly vote again for those who stood up to their bought-and-paid-for party leadership to send this bill to the dustbin where it belongs.

The government has gutted the Constitution, but the framework remains. The Founders' wisdom is again in evidence. There is a reason that spending bills must originate in the House, the body that is most responsive to the people.

WaPo reports that the stock market fell, which is great for people who are making contributions to a 401(K) and people who have saved money to invest at more reasonable prices. Oil dropped almost 10% on the news!

Freedom won today, but the enemies of freedom are already regrouping. Be vigilant.

It will be interesting to find out how many members of Congress bought put options and are profiting from the massive declines in stock prices. (My paltry $5,000 speculation in puts went up from $8,000 to $11,000 this morning... thanks Congressmen... On the other hand, my wife's 'investment portfolio' has declined by more than my gain... Oh, well.)

it's a great victory if you don't want a mortgage, or a car loan or a credit card or a healthy economy."

Prove that the bailout would help any of those things and that a lack of a bailout would hurt any of those things.

I bet you cant.

Posted by: KMichaels
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can you prove otherwise, genius? What the hell and half do YOU know about this financial crisis? Why don't you haul your know it all butt up to capital hill and let everyone know YOUR frigging plan? Otherwise, quit letting your a$$ do all your talking for you. The Dow is plummenting...tick tock...

Everyone's so happy at the chance to punish Wall Street but you dont see that it is a domino effect that is going to make you a pauper as well. Something has to be done to stop the economic collapse we're seeing as Wall Street panics, if not this exact bill, then something else that addresseses everyone's concerns.

HEY HEY, WE ARE ALL IN THE BREAD LINES NOW TAINTED VEGATABLES, MILK AND WHATEVER ELSE CAN BE THOUGHT OF TO KILL OFF AMERICANS. THIS WAS ANOTHER 9 11 WAITING TO HAPPEN. THE WEALTHY WILL FIND A WAY TO RESCUE BECAUSE IN THE BROAD SCOPE OF THINGS IT REALLY IS THEIR DOLLARS. MR BUSH HAS BEEN SCARING ALL ALONG "DO THIS OR THAT THAN THINGS WILL BE BETTER" HE HAS TO LEAVE A CUSHY JOB THAT HE WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE WITHOUT.

American elites have become very sloppy economic thinkers. Economies do not always grow at all times at a moderate rate. They grow in spurts, and retract. That has social consequences of course, and in their desire to mitigate those consequences they have chosen the worse method managing the money supply. America has purchased moderate growth with IOU checks for 20 years. We are a creditor nation that has premised all economic growth on additional credit. The plan was in effect, to offer more credit.

Now the Chinese and other foreign investors are no longer willing to extend the amount of credit that is necessary, there will be the inevitable contraction. The policies of the past, which supported this house of cards on credit, will turn out to have compounded the problem.

You can't escape economic certain basic economic principles not because the ideas are sacrosanct, but because in the end, those ecomomic principles explain the economic reality associated with the creation, destruction, and exchange of values that meet human needs. Even a child can understand that they can't forever borrow money to fund consumption without being required to eventually pay back the lender with expanded production of value. But Americans don't really talk about our macroeconomic principles in terms of production, distrubution, and expenditure. We talk in terms of monatary policy, which ultimately is a discussion about how much credit and inflationary money printing will be the "optimal" level to support growth through borrowing.

The next move is really the foreign investment communities. Do they double-down to protect their prior lending to save us, or do they bail and start pulling out to cut their losses. If it is the latter, we are in real trouble in the near term.

This 'bailout' is America's new crazy brand of 'Socialism'...without any of the benefits!

Nationalization of AIG, makes the US government owner of the world's largest insurance company with $5.5 trillion in liabilities.
Nationalization of the finance industry, increases the debt to American citizens to $14.8 trillion.

And all the 'players' both past and present will continuing to reap $$$ rewards!
The other 95% will continue to lose pensions, 401k, insurance benefits, security benefits, paychecks and homes.
No wonder citizens hate their government so much... 18% approval rating and 'crashing'.

Allowing this 'bailout' to go forward will forever brand the American citizen as a .....
Well! You fill in the (blank).

All due respects to Mr. Pershing's well stated facts for the Bill's faillure, I believe the public has a keen sense of a FIRE SALE. Knowledge and experience notwithstanding, people can sense the bill, as amended by the Congress, both Democrats and Republican, the fact the Administration's people are appointed to a Board to oversee the progress and use of the money is plain ludicrous. These are the people who have all the contacts to gain financially. The limitation on salary has many loopholes in the corporate world. Sure there is sympathy for those in need of credit and the enormous problem with the financial market; but, this bill is not the way to provide them relief. Please review the Savings and Loan crisis and folks like me remember it. The public was to have access to the assets and make a gain. It did not happen. The assets were kept for those with connections. There must be another way. Think, tight credit and the pain might be the way to make necessary corrections.

The failure of the bailout bill is quite simply another sad chapter in the Republican play book!

The Republicans in congress clearly sandbagged the vote - for political purposes and not for the good of the country.

Sadly the incumbent president and his pretender could not deliver the votes necesssary to protect the country.

To further buttress my remarks I provide you with information on the earmarks (that Senator McCain constantly rails against) of two of his major supporters - which you will never here about but are another reason why the sheer hypocrysy of the McCain campaign stands out even more:

The budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense has released an analysis of earmark requests in the 2009 Defense Authorization bill, finding 435 earmarks worth $5.2 billion. Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain asked for any earmarks. Joe Biden had an $11.6 million earmark. The Washington Times reports that McCain supporters Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) requested millions:

Lieberman requested $35 million for “Technology development for F135 engine” for beneficiary Pratt and Whitney. Graham has $20 million in solo requests, including a $9.9 million earmark for a “Physical Fitness Center” at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.

“Would McCain veto those if he were president?” the Times asks. Reporter Christina Bellantoni called the McCain campaign to see if he would veto the earmarks. “Update, 5:45 p.m.: Silence from Team McCain,” she writes.

The defense industry loves Lieberman and Graham and I seriously doubt that McCain would try to throw cold water on those relationships. He was silent on the issue yesterday, so expect more of the same from McCain today. As long as truth gets in the way of McCain's message, he'll just continue to try and sweep the evidence of his hypocrisy under the rug

"Oh, and ACORN Housing strong-armed lending institutions into extending subprime mortgages to people who didn't qualify, which led to the financial meltdown."

I'm no fan of ACORNs ridiculously leftist and often borderline racist demagoguery, but to say that the mess we are in is their fault isn't supportable. Yes, a small fraction of the defaulted subprime loans are those that were given to the very poor. But it' a very small fraction. FAR more common are the middle class and upper middle class foreclosures we are seeing everywhere. Simply put, too many Americans thought they had a 'right' to a giant 5 bedroom home whether they could afford it or not.

And the second wave of problems was the repackaging and reselling (and betting on) the assets of these mortgages. That's where the real shenanigans went on.

I would like to start by saying that I consider myself a very moderate republican, but I was disgusted with the comments of the Republicans after the vote. They said nothing about the actual plan; they did not have any complaints about the bill. All that they said is that Pelosi hurt their feelings with a speech - so they voted NO. What a bunch of @#(#) Children! They point the finger at the Dems. for playing partisan politics - as they throw Pelosi under the bus for supporting the Republican Presidents plan... Warren Buffet would like to invest his own money in a plan like this if he had the regulations that the govt. can make. How about we take the tax payers money - invest it at the right price/asset and pay Mr. Buffet a sliding scale commission? If we see no return or a loss - he does not get paid. Say we make a 20% gain - he gets 2% of it. Buffet himself said a gain of 10-20% would be very feasible...

For those saying a free market (or as some of you so cleverly put it - fraud market) is to blame, I ask this - what free market? There has not been a free market in this country for at least 150 years (and probably not even then). It is a poorly regulated market (poorly regulated because we live in a two party system that spends more time bickering than drafting good legislation). End the two party stranglehold, end partisan politics, and we might reach strong legislation that supports either a free market or a properly regulated market. Either way, a win for the people.

Nancy Pelosi did the country a favor. She reminded everyone that the same dysfunctional, partisan and slickly self-interested people who got us this far into the mess were those who presumed to provide oversight, leadership and blank checks to "rescue" us?

Nancy Pelosi's posturing, partisan speech was a clear reminder that this bailout bill was just giving more power to the same individuals and leadership that had already failed us. It showed everyone that her appeals to them that this was a rise-above-our-individual-self-interest vote, wasn't that at all.

That was the power of her inflammatory, divisive, posturing speech, not just "irritating" Republicans or hurting their feelings.

The failure of the bill can be explained in two words.
NANCY PELOSI
Posted by: no longer a dem | September 29, 2008 3:51 PM
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All Pelosi required was a majority of Republican's backing so that when this "FIX" to the Wall Street Money Addicts did not work,, and believe me a "FIX never cures the addiction,,the NEOCONS could not say "THE DEMOCRATS ARE SOCIALIZING COMMUNISTS"!

The Repubs killed the bill,,,and for the first time in a long time, I AGREE WITH THE REPUBLICANS!!!

Well, the good news is, after the economy craters, 80% of people who currently have internet connections will be unable to afford the payments, and comment sections like these will swing empty in the breeze, like it was back in 1992 before Endless September...good times...

I applaude every representative that voted NO. TBH, there is no wording that would make me agree with bailing out bad business practices.

If I accumulate "Bad" dept, I am expected to fix it. Why should their bad dept be different?

Lenders bought bad paper without checking that it was inside their risk portfolio.
Assuming that the crazy overpriced, profit taking market would go on "long enough" to offload the dept to some other sucker.

For me it was very simple. Our governmnet has lied and lied and lied. When they do act it is almost always to protect the wealthy (i.e., themselves) and the corporations that fund their re-election campaigns. This is no longer a government that cares about the people.

So I'm willing to gamble with a terrible depression because I have so much less to lose than the greedy bastards who did this to us.

This is the wake up call this country needed. The average American would not truly benefit from this. For once business is not as usual. No, to scare tactics and yes to basic economics. We don't need BIG cars and mini-mansions. Invest in the schools, chiidren and the future.

Your statement that Barney Frank "mockingly characterized the GOP's argument, 'Somebody hurt my feelings, so I'm going to punish the country'" is very misleading. Frank was at this point responding to a question from a journalist that asked quite directly if republican spitefulness played a role in the down vote. Frank was disgusted by the question after the amount of work put in on the bill on both sides of the aisle. Trying to stand up for his republican colleagues and making the point that the journalist's implication was ludicrous, Frank made that statement in mockery of the *journalist's question*, not the perceived attitude of the house republicans.

I was very impressed by this bipartisan response from Frank, and I would like to see credit given where credit is due.

If this all turns out to have been about nothing, then all of those sticking to their partisan guns can rest proud. But if Henry Paulson and our senior leadership from both parties is correct -- and they have a lot more information and knowledge than those of us complaining here on the message boards -- I hope you'll still be proud of this vote when the bleeding stops.

Me personally, I don't see this as a great victory for democracy. I'm afraid we've just cut off our noses to spite our faces.

Cut the sh!t and deal with that. it's a good dang reason 3/4th of America is just dumb to all of this and don't even care. the rest of us that are paying attention don't want to hear how the words of the Speaker made people vote against the bill. You all wordsmitt all dang day, online offline in the TV media, press, blog, etc.

Get your arses to work and resolve this crisis!

lastly, for any partisan that wants to blame the Dems, have you noticed how lame your president and his 3-page secretary of treasury are lately?

the whole issue at play here is credit! it 's not simply paying off debt, it's allowing our businesses to borrow, the backbone of American economy!

Bethesda, MD wrote:
I cannot believe that partisan bickering is costing me my 401(k) and just evaporated my parents retirement money. Can someone please explain to these idiots that if they don't do something to help NOW, we are all going down. They can go scapegoat hunting afterwards.
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I can't agree with you more, this is what matters all of this pointing fingers is crazy and time consuming.

Well, the market just lost over a trillion dollars this afternoon. That is money from our 401k's, pension funds, etc. $700 billion is nothing compared to the what will be liquidated by the markets globally over the next several days.

Next the banks, the ones that still have cash to operate will start reducing credit card lines to consumers, they've already stopped lending to businesses.

Less credit, less purchasing, less jobs, less money, more homelessness, more social programs to support people without jobs, broken families etc.

All the above could have been prevented if the govt. was allowed to temporarily hold the mortgages and then put them to auction, getting them off the banks balanace sheets and netting the profit from the auction.

But no, let's eliminate all wealth in the country and start over again. Idiots!

"Your statement that Barney Frank "mockingly characterized the GOP's argument, 'Somebody hurt my feelings, so I'm going to punish the country'" is very misleading. Frank was at this point responding to a question from a journalist that asked quite directly if republican spitefulness played a role in the down vote."

Given that the true value of the DOW is probably somewhere in the mid-8000 range, I would say that Congress still has some time.

I would recommend a complete ban on short-sales, and possibly strong scrutiny of all hedge fund trading activity while this debate continues.

Yes, America, we have big problems, but rushing in with buckets of imaginary money may not be the best and brightest solution; let's think very carefully before we add 15% to the money supply with no underlying value.

Incredible to see political expediency was a key factor here. How about doing the right thing for a change?

As for the gentleman who is delighted with the fact that finally the little people are being heard - just wait a couple of days when they come home without a pay check because their employer couldn't fund the payroll, or when they get their statements and see their savings are vaporized... Who are they going to talk to then?

Self-serving politics, twisted principles and revenge are why the US is in the mess it's in and why it's not getting out of it any time soon.

I'd be worried if I were one of the guys who voted "Yea" on this piece of cr*p bill. The time has come for a financial reckoning, and this 700 billion dollar monstrosity does nothing but push off the crisis for a few more years, when it'll be much worse.

It makes no sense at all not to approve this bill, or a different one if necessary. If congressmen want to punish wall street, there are several other ways to do it. But by allowing the economy fail into the ocean as rock, they are punishing 'specially' the tax-payers, not the wall street multimilionaires. Do you think the world will remember these congressmen as those who defeated wall street?. How naive!. People and history will remember them as those who led the US economy to the deepest of hells. By the way, if banks are accountable for this mess -which they probably are-, what about the Regulators? and the Congress?. It took the Congress 7 years to realize that there were problems in the financial system?!. What were they doing? And what about those who decided to buy houses when they knew they did not have conditions to do it?. Ah, but it pays much more in this political season to blame the 'evil banks' for everything. This is call PURE POLITICAL DEMAGOGY my friends. There is no other rational explanation. It seems that they prefer to destroy the country before they lose an election.

I am so angry about this. The Republicans and Democrats who voted against this package are only thinking about the next election, not the future of this country. The markets and economy need this money to stabilize the credit market. The financial fall out if we do nothing won't hurt the wealthy, or the politicians, most of whom are wealthy. It will hurt me, my family and most people I know as credit markets dry up and our retirement and college funds drop. And please, to blame this on hurt feelings due to comments from Pelosi -what a lame excuse - I wouldn't accept that from my kid, let alone our representatives who are supposed to be adults. I am not proud of my country or my fellow citizens today.

How can this be blamed on Republicans? The reason that Pelosi needed '100 Republican votes' is that her OWN PARTY (and by extension, her own leadership and disciplenary control of same) failed to support their Dear Leader Pelosi. She needed 100 Republicans to throw themselves on their swords so that her 100 'vulnerable' Democrats would not have to.

Is everyone just totally BLIND?

ALL heads involved in this need to have coolant checks. We need a reasoned, thoughtful response to this problem and not some quick-fix that has virtually no support from the voters and the public at large.

Top 5 Reasons to Vote Against Wall Street's $700 Billion Bailout
by David Sirota

There's news this Sunday afternoon of a congressional deal to bailout Wall Street fat cats with $700 billion of taxpayer cash (you can read the draft legislation here). Though the deal negotiated between congressional leaders and the White House is better than what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson originally proposed early last week, it remains an insulting atrocity, having omitted even basic aid to homeowners, bankruptcy reforms and any modicum of future financial industry regulation. Now, the New York Times reports that the Democratic leadership may not have the votes to pass this bailout. So without further ado, here are the top 5 reasons (in no order) why every single member of Congress - Democrat and Republican - should vote this sucker down. Please feel free to copy and paste this post into an email to your congressperson. They are deciding right now - let them hear your voice.

1. BAILOUT'S INHERENT FISCAL INSANITY COULD MAKE PROBLEM WORSE

When an individual consumer uses a new credit card to pay off astounding debt from an old credit card, it's akin to check kiting, which is is illegal. Apparently, though, when the government does it, it's billed as Serious Public Policy. Because that's what this supposedly prudent bailout bill would do: Force taxpayers to borrow $700 billion from foreign banks to pay off the bad debt of Wall Street banks. During a crisis that is aimed at preventing interest rates from skyrocketing, nobody has been able to explain how adding almost a trillion dollars to the interest rate-exacerbating national debt would do anything other than undermine the plan's underlying objective. Worse, the U.S. Treasury Department itself admits that the $700 billion number is "not based on any particular data point" - that is, they created it out of thin air because "We just wanted to choose a really large number." Slapping that amount of money onto the national credit card when our government can't even justify the amount is beyond absurd - it is insane.

It didn't have to be this way, of course. As I noted in my newspaper column this week, Senator Bernie Sanders proposed a temporary tax on millionaires to finance part of this bailout. Similarly, Blue Dog Democrats proposed a future tax on financial firms if and when taxpayers lose cash on the deal. These proposals were discarded in favor of language asking the government to "submit a plan to Congress on how to recoup any losses," according to the Associated Press. Not only is that language toothless, but it opens up the possibility of a plan being submitted that says we should raise middle-class taxes or slash middle-class social programs to pay for Wall Street's misbehavior.

2. EXPERTS ON BOTH THE LEFT AND RIGHT SAY THIS BAILOUT COULD MAKE THINGS WORSE

Primum non nocere is the latin phrase for "first do no harm" - the priority principle for any EMT working on a sick patient. It should be the same priority for Congress at this moment - and a growing group of esteemed experts on both the Right and Left are insisting that this bailout bill could make things worse. Here's a review:

The Washington Post reported on Friday, almost 200 academic economists "have signed a petition organized by a University of Chicago professor objecting to the plan on the grounds that it could create perverse incentives, that it is too vague and that its long-run effects are unclear."
NYU's Nouriel Roubini, the visionary who had been predicting this meltdown, says "The Treasury plan (even in its current version agreed with Congress) is very poorly conceived and does not contain many of the key elements of a sound and efficient and fair rescue plan."
Harvard's Ken Rogoff, a Former Federal Rerserve and IMF official, insists that the prospect of this bailout is, unto itself, taking a manageable problem and making it into a more intense crisis. He says that credit is frozen primarily because banks want to avoid dealing with other banks that might drive a hard bargain, and instead would rather wait for free money from the government. Without the prospect of that free money, Rogoff suggests that credit would probably begin moving again, if slowly.
Dean Baker of the Center on Economic and Policy Research says that spending so much cash so quickly on such a poorly conceived plan could have the effect of making it impossible to fund economic stimulus that is the real way out of this mess. "Suppose the Paulson plan goes through," he writes. "It is virtually certain that the economy will weaken further and the number of foreclosures and people without jobs will continue to rise. This is the fallout from a collapsing housing bubble...When families respond to their loss of home equity by cutting back their consumption it will deepen the recession. In this context it might prove very important to have the resources needed to provide a substantial stimulus. [and] there is no doubt that this bailout will make further stimulus much more difficult to sell politically."
Meanwhile, it's not even close to clear that this is a problem that requires such an enormous response. As mentioned above, the Treasury Department admits it has absolutely no factual basis for requesting $700 billion - an amount equivalent to about 5 percent of our entire economy. Additionally, the Washington Post reports that "Banks throughout the United States carried on with the business of making loans yesterday even as federal officials warned again that their industry is on the verge of collapse, suggesting that the overheated language on Capitol Hill may not reflect the reality on many Main Streets." Indeed, "many smaller banks said they were actually benefiting from the problems on Wall Street" and "even some of the nation's largest banks, which have pushed hard for a federal bailout, deny that the current situation is forcing them to reduce lending."

The questions, then, are simple: In the face of this bipartisan opposition from objective experts, why should a lawmaker instead believe the same Bush officials who helped create this crisis with their deregulation, the same Bush officials who just months ago said everything was AOK? Shouldn't there be almost complete unanimity among both objective and partisan observers before spending 5 percent of our entire economy after just one harried week of White House demands? Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. It's time, as The Who said, that we "don't get fooled again."

3. THERE ARE CLEARLY BETTER AND SAFER ALTERNATIVES

The mantra throughout the week has been that America has "no choice" but to pass Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion giveaway - that, in effect, there are no alternatives. But that's an out-and-out lie - one with a motive: Making it seem as if the only thing we can do is hand the keys to the federal treasury over to both parties' corporate campaign contributors.

The truth is, there are a number of alternatives. Here are just a few:

In the Washington Post last week, Galbraith outlined a multi-pronged plan shoring up and expanding the FDIC, creating a Home Owners Loan Corporation, resurrecting Nixon's federal revenue sharing, and taxing stock transactions (a tax that would fall mostly on speculators) to finance the whole deal.
The Service Employees International Union has drafted a plan based around a massive investment in public services and national health care, and regulatory reforms preventing foreclosures and forcing banks to renegotiate the predatory terms of their bad mortgages.
For those in the mindless, zombie-ish "someone has to do something, so we have to do what the White House says!" camp, consider the possibility that you are under the spell of the same kind of White House fear that led us to invade Iraq because of Saddam's supposed WMD. Consider, perhaps, that there may not even be a compelling basis for doing anything just yet (or at least not anything nearly so huge), and that the whole reason there is this urgent push right now has nothing to do with the financial situation, and everything to do with creating the political dynamic to pass a wasteful giveaway - one that couldn't be passed otherwise without a sense of emergency. And ask yourself why you would listen to this White House instead of listening to those experts who have been predicting this crisis and are now advising against this bailout - experts like CEPR's Baker. In two separate posts (here and here), he says that letting the problem play out could be the best path, because Treasury and the Fed may already have the tools they need. Following this path, the worst thing that happens is "The Fed and Treasury will have to step in and take over the banks [which] is exactly what many economists argue should happen anyhow," Baker writes. "So the outcome of the worst case scenario is a really frightening day in which the whole world financial system is shaken to its core, followed by a government takeover of the banks. Eventually the government straightens out the books and sells them off again. But the real threat here is not to the economy, it is to the banks."
Then there is the idea of simply taking the $700 billion and simply give it to struggling homeowners to help them pay off part of their mortgages. This hasn't even been discussed but the thought experiment it involves is important to understanding why there is, indeed, an alternative to the Paulson plan. If the root of this problem is people not being able to pay off their mortgages, and those defaults then devaluing banks' mortgage-backed assets, then simply helping people pay their mortgages would preserve the value of the mortgage-backed assets and recharge the market with liquidity. That would be a bottom-up solution helping the mass public, rather than a top-down move helping only financial industry executives.
On this latter proposal, some may argue that giving any relief to homeowners is "unfair" in that those homeowners created their problems, so why should taxpayers have to help them? But then, is helping homeowners any less fair than simply giving all the money away to Wall Street, no strings attached? I'd say no - and helping homeowners also serves a second purpose: namely, keeping people in their homes, which not only helps them, but helps an entire neighborhood (as any homeowner knows, nearby properties can be devalued when foreclosures hit).

4. ANY INCUMBENT VOTING FOR THIS PUTS THEMSELVES AT RISK OF BEING THROWN OUT OF OFFICE

As a preface, let me state that I think we live in a country where politicians too often listen to their donors and to the Establishment rather than their constituents, not the other way around. America is a country where our leaders dishonestly invoke the concepts of "Statesmanship" and "Seriousness" and their supposed hatred of "pandering" to justify ignoring what the public wants (as if giving the public what it wants is somehow not the objective of a democratic republic). So, in short, I don't think there's anything wrong with this bill being "politicized" by coming down the pike right before an election - in fact, I think it's a good thing because the election - and the fear of being thrown out of office forces our politicians to at least consider what the public wants. I mean, really - would we rather have this decision made after the election, when the public can be completely ignored?

Polls overwhelmingly show a public that sees voting for this bill as an act of economic treason whereby the bipartisan Washington elite robs taxpayer cash to give their campaign contributors a trillion-dollar gift. As just two of many examples, Bloomberg News' poll shows "decisive" opposition to the bailout proposal, and Rasmussen reports that their surveys show "the more voters learn about the proposed $700 billion federal bailout plan for the U.S. economy, the more they don't like it." Put another way, this bailout proposal has unified both the Right and Left sides of the populist uprising that I described in my new book and that is now even more angry than ever.

Any sitting officeholder that votes for this - whether a Democrat or a Republican - should expect to get crushed under a wave of populist-themed attacks from their opponents. We've already seen it start. In Oregon, Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley (D) is airing scathing television ads hammering Republican incumbent Gordon Smith for potentially supporting the deal. Similarly, this morning on Meet the Press, we saw Republican Senate challenger Bob Schaffer (CO) dishonestly papering over his own votes for deregulation and ripping into his opponent Rep. Mark Udall (D) for potentially supporting the deal. Incumbents, get ready for that kind of election-changing heat in your face if you vote "yes."

This, by the way, could play out in the presidential contest. Barack Obama has been taking the advice of the Wall Street insiders in his campaign in endorsing this bailout. McCain has endorsed the vague outline, but he may ultimately back off once he sees the details, allowing him to then run the last month of the campaign as the economic populist in the race. I'm not saying it would work, considering McCain's 26-year record of supporting the deregulatory agenda that created this crisis. But such a move could end up help him flank Obama on the defining economic issues of the race.

5. CORRUPTION AND SLEAZE ARE SWIRLING AROUND THESE BAILOUTS - AND AMERICA KNOWS IT

The amount of brazen corruption and conflicts of interest swirling around this deal is odious, even by Washington's standards - and polls suggest the public inherently understands that. Consider these choice nuggets:

Warren Buffett is simultaneously advising Obama to support the deal, while he himself is investing in the company that stands to make the most off the deal.
McCain's campaign is run by lobbyists from the companies that stand to make a killing off a no-strings government bailout.
The New York Times reports that the person advising Paulson and Bernanke on the AIG bailout was the CEO of Goldman Sachs - a company with a $20 billion stake in AIG.
The Obama campaign's top spokesman pushing this deal is none other than Roger Altman, who Bloomberg News reports is simultaneously "advising a group of investors who are trying to prevent their shares from being diluted in the U.S. takeover of American International Group Inc." - that is, who have a direct financial interest in the current iteration of the bailout.
Add to this the fact that the negotiations over this bill have been largely conducted in secret, and you have one of the most sleazy heists in American history.

**********

If this bill passes, it will be a profound referendum on the dominance of money over democracy in America. That - and that alone - would be the only thing an objective observer could take away from the whole thing.

Money will have compelled politicians to not only vote for substantively dangerous policy, but vote for that policy even at their own clear electoral peril. Such a vote will confirm that the only people these politicians believe they are responsible for representing are are the fat-cat recipients of the $700 billion - the same fat cats who underwrite their political campaigns, the same fat-cats who engineered this crisis, and want to keep profiteering off it. Any lawmaker who takes that position is selling out the country, as is any issue-based political non-profit group - liberal or conservative - that uses its resources to defend a "yes" vote rather than demand a "no" vote. This is a bill that forces taxpayers to absorb all of the pain, and Wall Street executives to reap all of the gain. It doesn't even force the corporate executives (much less the government leaders) culpable in this free fall to step down - it lets them stay fat and happy in their corner office suites in Manhattan.

Even if they believe that something must be done right now, lawmakers should still vote no on this specific bill, and force one of the very prudent alternatives to the forefront. They shouldn't just vote no on Paulson's proposal - they should vote hell no. Our economy's future depends on it.

The bailout bill would have been a first step in restoring confidence in our free market economic system. Those on Capitol Hill, who are of the Herbert Hoover persuasion, are very narrow-minded. Sure, there is a hole in the bottom of the economic boat. Someone or some people punctured it. Do we let the boat sink so all can drown? Or do we take steps to repair the hole? Sure, in making such repairs, we will save the ones responsible for making the hole in the first place. However, we need to take these measures, which will save everybody. After the dust settles, we can take stock and place blame where it is properly due. Those sitting on Capitol Hill with their arms folded, while the boat sinks, need to be booted out of office come November.

"It's too early to know whether Pelosi's speech, which laid much of the blame for the whole financial crisis at the foot of the Bush administration, really made much of a difference. But if several House Republicans actually did switch their votes on a momentous piece of legislation just because they were irritated by a speech, what does that say about them?"

That they rightly think Pelosi is an idiot and should be selling Tupperware instead of being in charge of anything?

I love how these clowns talk about "bi-partisanship", and then proceed to pat THEIR OWN PARTY MEMBERS on the back while lambasting the other Party. Then the so-called leadership expects them to just get in line. Yeah, right.

forget the "nation addicted to oil", the country is addicted to credit.

its you the public who doesn't get it! this is John's SHREWD ingenious immigration solution. If the country's economy sinks into oblivion, who will want to come to the USA -- legal or illegal? Thanks John, pass the worthless currency please.

If the problem is that the banks won't lend, and therefore government needs to intervene, government should do the lending directly instead of trying (perhaps unsuccessfully) to bribe the banks into lending. The country will need to deal with this problem, but it may not need to deal with it before the next Congress.

To see how similar legislation fared in Mexico 10 years ago, here's my translation of an article by Gabriel Pereyra en El Imparcial, Oaxaca, Mexico, dated yesterday:
FOBAPROA, GRINGO STYLE

By Gabriel Pereyra
El Imparcial, Oaxaca, Mexico
September 28, 2008

It seems that the Harvard crew hasn’t invented anything new for the benefit of the financiers and capitalist class of the world. Ten years after they ordered Ernesto Zedillo to put into action the recipe for FOBAPROA (Fondo Bancario de Protección al Ahorro, or Banking Fund for the Protection of Savings), which constituted the largest and most shameless theft of the people of Mexico, they now want to apply the same formula to the American people.

It’s a very simple formula: socialize the losses and privatize the profits; take 700 billion dollars from the Treasury and give it to the banks, to the owners of insurance companies and to the stockholders so that they can do with it what they wish, but – please don’t go bankrupt. Those dollars will be paid for by the American taxpayers.

Just as happened in Mexico where we have mortgaged even the grandchildren of our grandchildren, this magic prescription gives everything to the bankers while the people pay the bill.

Even though we know that the banks are a diabolical mechanism for making money and for taking from the people, penny by penny, pieces of their life and their work, the immorality of the capitalist system has reached unsuspected limits.

Now it’s the turn of the gringos to exploit it as they did in the crisis of 1929.

It’s a very simple story, one that capitalism has repeated since the model was invented. The problem of economic crisis in the United States had its origin in the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007. This mortgage crisis was precipitated by the bursting of the real estate bubble.

The subprime loans are those carrying the higher risk of non-payment than the average loan. With the changes in the real estate market, the majority of these loans fell into default. The larger part of these mortgages has been sold to secondary markets. (The bank that originally funded the mortgage sold this loan to someone else and these became uncollectable.)

Those who have been hardest hit are the investment banks and the mortgage companies. The first investment bank to fail was Bear Sterns which received a loan from the Federal Reserve and was finally acquired by JP Morgan Chase, another financial institution. There followed, then, the rescue of two mortgage societies, Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). Then, another investment bank, Merrill Lynch, had to be saved by being acquired by Bank of America; meanwhile, Lehman Bros found no financial rescuer and had to be declared in bankruptcy. Now, an insurance company, AIG, has received an emergency loan of 85 billion dollars for its rescue.

The United States government is proposing the acquisition of a large amount of debt of little liquidity and one tied to the real estate market. It is estimated that at the very least this will require a commitment of 700 billion dollars.

All this was eagerly agreed to by the banking industry with its lack of regulation and the inefficiency of the laws governing it. It’s clear, also, that the immorality of the bankers and financiers of that country are equal to their Mexican counterparts in corruption.

Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, repeated in his recent debate with his Republican opponent that we should not hand over the money to the stockholders and bankers, but to the debtors; the same opinion is held by the demonstrators in New York who are trying to avoid the plundering planned for them and for millions of Americans. The end result would be the same: if those who have not paid their debts are able then to pay them, the banks will receive their money and become solvent again. Otherwise, if the money is given to the bankers and financiers, the poor will remain in debt and the bankers can commit every kind of financial immorality as they did in Mexico: change the dates of payments, label collectable debts uncollectable and a thousand other tricks known so well by Roberto González and Alfredo Harp Helú.

The money that Bush wants to apply to the American version of FOBAPROA amounts, in today’s market, to $2300 for every American man, woman and child…about nine times the budget for education in the United States. This amount is, despite what Felipe Calderon says to the contrary, what we Mexicans will have to pay for our ties to the American economy and because, in this model of globalization, bankruptcies are universal.

700 billion dollars is an exorbitant amount of money to insure that the bankers can maintain their mansions, yachts and sailboats, and planes and their Pharaonic lifestyle while the average everyday American, like us Mexicans, has to pay for the immorality and corruption of banks and a system that was born to be corrupt.

So the question is that if House Republicans switched their votes just because of Pelosi's speech, what does that say about them. Interesting that he doesn't ask what it says about Pelosi that she would make such a partisan speech right before such an important vote for the country.

I'd lay the squarely at the feet of GWB. He had his with the Congress for so long (riding roughshod in every manner possible) that when the time came for him to work with the Congress his so called "political capital" was in worse shape than Wall St.

Just do the math - Pelosi controls the House and the Democrats could have passed this bill along party lines. But she has no control over her caucus - lack of leadership on the Hill on her part. SHE failed to deliver - after all, she is the MAJORITY LEADER or is she....????

America will soon become a poor country. Compared to what is spent yearly in Irak - for almost no results - the bill was not that much expensive.
We in Europe have done nothing wrong but will be hardly hurt by the us recession.
You might remember Mr Rumsfeld joking about the "old Europe" ....

America - you deserve exactly what you are about to get - Great Depression Version 2.0.

Your lack of understanding of this issue (and your elected officials clear voting based on purely, political consideration and the 'polling' of you - a severely misinformed constituency) has sealed your (and unfortunately 'our') fate. We're all effed now!

I guess I'll see you all in the coming soup lines, or maybe we'll share a compartment on a train - with our hobo packs and our pockets full of dreams...

Well..to whomever screwed it up...Thank You..although it may be painful for a while, the people, companies and indeed the governments at all levels in this country need to learn to live within our means.

This bill, the product of BUSH WHITE HOUSE,
written by the REPUBLICAN TREASURY SECRETARY
was handled in good faith by Pelosi and the democrats. Who said they'd help pass it if the Republicans bought in...

is now vilified by some crmmy spam organization trying to spin things backwards?

Is the American publc
that stupid? We are as nasty and untruthful as McCain...ad dumb and an educated as Palin. Maybe it's perfect.

Barney Frank needs to resign. He has punished the country long enough w/ his horribly flawed judgement.

This whole crisis goes back to the Government's obsession w/ affordable housing. The Government has destroyed the housing and mortgage markets. They need to set these markets free. We need more market solutions. Enough with political solutions.

Now, hopefully, they can all sit down and put together a bill that will truly address the issues without blindly giving away our money. It is not their money, but ours as taxpayers. There is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle here. What irritates me is that our political "leaders" are morally incapable of exercising any leadership. We, the American people are to blame for this as we are the ones who continue to elect these know nothing but wrong doing people in the first place. We should vote every single one of them out of office this November, as even now, they are all huddled together trying to figure out how to keep this from splattering them.

i am against this bill as i think we should go back to the days when you actually had to have a down payment,a job, and good credit to buy a house or anything else on time..we just all got too much "help" and could'nt afford it.
if you give something for nothing it becomes nothing to the person receiving it.

This is what happens when people buy a Mc Mansion they couldn't have afforded in the first place. What part of variable interest rate didn't they understand and why should the financially smart homeowners now bail some out for their own mistake. Be a big kid, suck it up and finally be a responsible adult and account for your actions.

As soon as I recognized the bill had failed, I called my congressman's office, Rep Gerlach from Montgomery County, PA. He is a republican, and he voted against the bill. His office said he did not like the bill, but they were unable to say what he wanted changed or what his back up plan was for this crisis. From your report, my own congressman is one of those who is no longer invested in responsible governing. I am enraged at congress for their irresponsibility, finger pointing, stupidity and self interest.

So, if this is not the correct nill and this is not the appropriate way to fix the problem, what's the option? Simply to let it fail? It doesn't make sense. I'm more worried about what's going to happen next, now that partisanship and fingerpointing is at its best.

You forget one major reason. Many Americans are tired of bailing out Congress. They are the ones responsible for this mess. If the bailout had a provision that garnished the wages of Congressfolk, maybe a majority of Americans would have supported it... but, to let off the crooks in Congress, one more time, is too much.

The Economy needs JOBS so people can make house payment and pay taxes.

People need affordable housing in the $100k ~ $200k range. Build it, and we will BUY it.

Immediately make available Billions in Tax Credits for Renewable Energy Infrastructure Development. Every $1 credit creates $8 of new investment. That’s the best way to revive our economy and free ourselves from Middle Eastern Oil.

Change the focus to Job Creation and invest $100 Billion in Renewable Energy Investment Tax Credits. That alone can generate $700~800 Billion of new Investment into our Economy, along with Millions of Jobs. In the long run it also frees us from sending Hundreds of Billions to the Middle East for Oil.

Hundreds of Thousands of our Troops are in Iraq to protect oil interests, while government is failing to promote industries which can provide Veterans jobs when they return home.

We can create 2 Million Clean Energy jobs in just 2 years with a $100 Billion investment. Imagine how many $700 Billion would create (14 Million New Jobs?):

The Bush legacy, at last: the end of the United States as a first-world country. You all are running around rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic while it sinks, taking my house and your house with it.

Proposals for bailing out homeowners are all well and good, except for the billions of dollars of fraud and billions of dollars of legal expense that will inevitably dilute that kind of help.

How about that in an election year, the House actually listened to their constituents that they represent. How hard was the Wall St. lobby machine working their mojo to pass this bill and it still died. The Reps feet were held to the fire, but not by the lobbyists...But by us!!

BushCo has no credibility and worse. It comes from so many years of crying wolf and then it turning out they lied about it all to get us into wars and other problems. This is no different. I bet most people believe that BushCo has set this up for his buddies to somehow benefit from it. And you know what, I couldn`t argue with them at this point. I have so little faith in any of them out there. I know that Warren Buffett being concerned made me concerned but he could be getting bluffed too.

I think the fact that BushCo wanted to try to solve the problem with giving money to the ones that have let greed be their guiding light is what has so many people up in arms. Had they wanted a solution that allowed these companies to go bankrupt and then helped other companies buy up the pieces then maybe it would have been okay. Or had the government used a Resolution Trust Corp type organization to give out these short term business loans that everyone is saying are frozen then I could see that as being a solution. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be used to create mortgages (but really, if you buy today how do you know that next month the value isn`t going to be lower than your mortgage already).

The housing market cannot be saved from itself. As long as local markets are more expensive than the median wages for that area then the prices are too high. What formula is the government recommending? Thirty percent of gross and forty percent of net? What should be the target rule of thumb. That is where the prices need to fall to. I know they aren`t there in my community.

This certainly shows why social security shouldn`t be privatized though.

The failure of the bill gives hope for our country's political system; the people actually prevailed. So what some wall st firms fail, others will come in, pick up the pieces and move on.
I would support a bailout under the condition that the perpetrators give back the taxpayers the vast amount of wealth accumulated under the fraudulent schemes.

The problem wasn't that the gorilla weighed 700 billion pounds, it was that it was a freakin' gorilla! The supreme irony is that Democratic leadership has done such a great job of villifying Bush that, now when they're on the same side, nobody trusts their proposal. Temporarily cut or suspend capital gains taxes to allow influx of offshore capital. Suspend mark-to-market accounting for banks so their balance sheets can recover enough to allow them to borrow again. This has nothing to do with foreclosures at this point, the crisis here is frozen financial markets. But they can be unfrozen with a scalpel, not an A-bomb.

Another NEOCON INTELLECT!!! Is that the Karl Rove spin..."NANCY PELOSI DID IT..." ,,,If hard times come it's Pelosi's fault , not the deregulation, tax cuts, and war, for Bush's "HAVE MORES"!!
Hey pal,,Herr Rove will be "INDICTED",, Nancy will see to that come 2009!

Obviously the writer had his afternoon fix of Kool-Aid and misread the DNC talking points. Ms. San Fran Nan Pelosi SHOULD have had the votes...but she didn't and she also chased off the needed ones. If Dodd and Frank would have even HINTED that they should have been more due diligent, then there MIGHT have been more support. When Frank and Waters called a Federal Regulator (auditor) a Liar and Racist when he TRIED to tell the Demo Controlled committe that there were problems in Fannie and Freddie and that Raines and Johnson were culpable, then THERE is the beginning of the problem. Is Madam Mouthpiece would have TOLD the truth...then the thing would have passed.

NOT CRYBABY...just realism. I will be down over $50K today...but I do NOT need to sell...I lost that much on SEVERAL days when the Clinton Bubble (Ms. Pelosi's UTOPIA) burst.

I am livid that this bill did not pass. Not that it was a perfect bill - far from. But we need to do this to stop the bleeding. The media hasn't helped things by characterizing this as a "bailout." This is a torniquet if anything. Please let's put this in context. Failure to stem the credit crisis will lead to a huge economic catastrophe. If nothing gets passed, those who voted against this "bailout" will lose the election in 2 years time even if they win this fall, as Main Street gets hit so hard it makes the carnage on Wall Street look like a picnic. Imagine no credit for expanding business, no ability to borrow money for a house or a car - where will the jobs come from? I strongly suggest re-reading The Grapes of Wrath if you want a flavor of how desperate times can get.

Well, I hope all you brilliant economists
are happy when people start losing their jobs, people's retirements are ruined and we suffer an economic catastrophe the likes of which haven't happened since the Great Depression. Wall Street may be greedy and corrupt, but Main Street is just plain stupid.

We are in for a deep recession. There's no way around that. The bad debt must be liquidated, one way or another. This fight is not over. The proponents of complete central control of the economy will use the coming recession as an excuse once again to go down the same path that Hoover and FDR took in the early 30's. (What? You were taught that Hoover was a liquidationist? You were lied to. Google for "America's Great Depression - Rothbard.) The Hoover/FDR policy turned a recession into a 16 year long depression.

What I am reading over and over is that we do not trust our government officials. I agree. We have been bamboozled too many times before, so even if this bill was for the best, we don't trust our politicians enough to believe it. It frightens me. I don't know what or whom to believe any more.

The Sunday newspaper in Spokane WA featured interviews with local bankers who denied any liquidity problem or crisis here because of more conservative banking practices in the Northwest. So why would any congressman from the Northwest support this bailout for Wall Street. Let NY, CN,and NJ cleanup their own mess---afterall, they received the profits from their speculative excess.

Seeing the defeat of this smoke-and-mirrors panic measure as some kind of failure to follow excellent and true leadership is fuzzy thinking. Bush and co. have already gambled away their credibility on spurious global adventures and no longer even have a bully pulpit to speak from. The rest of the "leadership" are connected at the hip with the folks who profited from this mess. Worst mistake: the bill itself seems to claim that the "full faith and credit" of the US of A is somehow unlimited - that we can guaranty our $11T national debt, guaranty the huge percentage of the GNP under FDIC protection, and now another $700B - that the ability of the world to believe in the continued solvency of the US of A is somehow infinite. Leadership thinking that the US is unlimited in its ability to support debt - and that the rest of the world recognizes this - is a prime example of the hubris that got us into this mess.

Anyone touting that this is a victory for the American people needs to shut their mouth and learn to read. Although that skill isn't necessarily going to help them when the U.S. reverts to a tribal/hunter-gatherer society, they will at least understand that they misunderstood the Paulson Plan and screwed themselves by thinking this was a '$700 Billion Bailout'. It was none of those things, but the knee-jerk reaction by Americans to both the terms used to describe it and the presenters of this bill has sealed our fate.

NO GIVE BACKS, NO BAILOUTS. All of the executive level people for these financial services companies should announce forthwith that they will give back 1/3 to 1/2 of the bonuses they have received over the last six years. No one knows how much money is involved, but it is easily between one half to one billion dollars that has been paid out to the people who got the nation into this mess. How can they return money already spent? Easy. Sell two or three of their five houses or give up the jet they've been using in retirement. To whom should the money be given? The U.S. Treasury and the Congress can pass legislation to use the funds for scholarships for low income kids to attend college. American voters want to know how people can get fifty million dollar bonuses and then stick everyone with the bill. They can't. By the way, giving back money would not involve criminal immunity, it would just be a good will gesture to show that they value the nation before their own comfort. If fifty to sixty percent of the executives don't sign up, no deal. That simple.

What should be considered as well is bailing out the people who took the mortgages pushed out the door like fire sales. The U.S. govt. gives out six billion dollars a year to farmers, even those making big profits, so we can find a way to help those at the bottom of the victim list on this one as well.

Those of you calling this rejection a great thing are (sorry to say) simplistic idiots...thanks to you and your congressmen, we can welcome another big Depression. Have you learned nothing from History? Are you so bitter that you want to "punish" these companies just to make yourself feel better? Egads...we truly do live in Idiocracy now. We should have let the South seceede, because their Congressmen have been making bad decisions that hurt the rest of America for a very long time. We are screwed!!!!

In a presidential election, the presidential candidates have the best platform to inform and persuade the country on matters of national importance. Because it's so politically sensitive, neither has been fully committed to doing so. In the debate, both should have spelled it out much more clearly- no credit availability means no jobs, no cars, no houses, no student loans, no retirement savings etc. A better job selling the deal to the public might have helped a self-interested congress make a politically perilous vote. Or the congress could have had the stones to do it anyway.

Bailing out or rescuing firms that make dumb business decisions is not the role of the United States government.

Kudos to the House of Representatives for either growing a backbone, or, more likely, realizing that the voters will crucify anyone who votes to give billions to rich executives while letting poor working-class folks loose their homes.

I oppose the proposed bailout plan because it's a lousy plan. It will not help main street or our economy or our financial systems in the mid-term or long-term. It is a panic bill, wilder than the emotions on Wall Street. Get educated, e.g., on http://rgemonitor.com -- which all involved should have done weeks ago before dragging us all through this mess.

Unfortunately, our economy needs an influx of money in proportions only our government can provide or we're going towards another Great Depression. So while this bill in particular failed do not doubt for a second that within the next couple of weeks there will be bill that will essentially loan our banking systems an amount of money that is closer to a trillon dollars than not.

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. So stop complaining about your stocks and retirement. You sat back and let the country be taken over by a subprime president and party and now that their failed policies have resulted in this, you scream, hysterically. Hey, the stock market is still 7000 points higher than it was 15 years ago. I think chaos is a perceived thing. So far, what really is happening? Failed banks, failed investment companies. Why should CEO's walk away with millions? Why should Paulson get sole control of funds?

And McCain? What a joke. Yesterday, he is not for the bailout. Today, he is blaming Obama for the failure of the bailout. You just don't know where this psychopath is from day to day. I think he's on drugs.

The "rescue" bill failed because House leaders - mainly Pelosi, Hoyer and Frank - put the bill up for a vote without assuring it had the votes to pass. This is indicative of poor leadership - i.e., incompetency. Pelosi's partisan "blame-Bush" speech further illustrates her incompetency. Whenever bipartisanship is essential to the passage of a bill - especially an extremely important one - you don't bash the opposition party.

"These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''
-- Representative Barney Frank, 2003

"In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry."

By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings."

We are at the precipice of one of the greatest economic disasters in modern history.

What is so stunningly idiotic about the detractors of this plan, is that the NYSE, NASDAQ, and S&P500 singlehandedly wiped out several trillion dollars in market capitalization today, and will likely wipe out tens of trillions in the days to come as the credit market completely shuts down. This is essentially a tax on 401ks, IRAs, pensions, mutual funds, that was even bigger than the financial "bailout package," which was a measley 750 billion - most of which the american people would have recouped in a decade.

In the coming days, we're going to watch what happens when the smart people are overruled by the undereducated masses.

Where's that Democratic Leadership we were promised 2 years ago when they gained control of Congress? They have enough votes in both houses to pass the measure and make the Repubicans look like smucks but they couldn't lead!!!!

Main Street or whatever you want to call it haven't felt the impact yet. The politicians knew what was at stake and chose to protect themselves and assure themselves of losing their seats in the process. Most of the nays on both sides were new and idealistic. The people who voted them into office made it known that they didn't like the bill. But, when they run again, and those same people come up and ask them for money to buy a sandwich maybe they will see the error in their ways.

This problem started with the failed economic turd Reagan tossed out in 1980; that if left alone the markets would sprinkle joy and prosperity on one and all. Everywhere it has been applied, a free market economy has shown the same results: a huge chasm between rich and poor; rampant inflation and unemployment; and eventual socialization of failed privatized institutions at tax payer cost. It happens over and over again.

Wall Street is to blame, certainly. Washington and the GOP congress is to blame. Alan Greenspan is to blame. As well as main street and the American Dream. (which has the word dream in it!) As well as the failed belief by old crotchety greedhead developers that millions of people would line up to pay half a million dollars to live in a three hundred square foot starter condo in Florida. The result will be a worldwide recession that will, rightfully, tracked back to our door.

Atlanta, where I live, is a ghost town of poorly designed crap condos that nobody lives in. Yet cranes are building new empty buildings as we speak. The skyline looks like Nairobi in 1963. There was never a market for these things, of course; just fat dumb guys in suits sitting around dreaming and scheming. It's the same that happened in the 80's. Let's construct our way to prosperity!

When the credit freezes and Joe Schmo loses his job, the Nays will have a lot of explaining to do. Just don't expect it to work.

Come on guys. Do you honestly think that banks will stop lending money? I doubt it...they make money off the interest. It may get harder to get a loan, but maybe it should be. And maybe people will start living within their means more, instead of going thousands of dollars in debt with no way to pay it back!

I think this is a smart analysis of why it failed.
I admit I'm one of those people who's on the fence about the whole situation-- it's such a gray area, so it can't be treated as a black and white situation. I mean, when was the last time our country had to deal with something this drastic? I doubt there's a "Complete Idiot's Guide to Wall Street Bailouting" to help them figure it out.
So I appreciate those Representives who are genuinely trying to solve the situation. They're doing their jobs at least, unlike those who just whine about the situation but do nothing to help solve it.

Look, I totally agree. First, why should I vote for a stinker of a bill? At least give me a good bill that I can say "I voted for it" with pride. Is that too much to ask?

Second, it *might* have worked if it wasn't targeted towards giving even more money and power to the BA and its Wall Street cronies. Maybe they should resign for the good of the country? That might help things a little.

To hear today's Democrats, you'd think all this started in the last couple years. But the crisis began much earlier. The Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, mostly in minority areas.

Age-old standards of banking prudence got thrown out the window. In their place came harsh new regulations requiring banks not only to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, but to do so on the basis of race.

These well-intended rules were supercharged in the early 1990s by President Clinton. Despite warnings from GOP members of Congress in 1992, Clinton pushed extensive changes to the rules requiring lenders to make questionable loans.

Failure to comply meant your bank might not be allowed to expand lending, add new branches or merge with other companies. Banks were given a so-called "CRA rating" that graded how diverse their lending portfolio was.

In the name of diversity, banks began making huge numbers of loans that they previously would not have. They opened branches in poor areas to lift their CRA ratings.

Meanwhile, Congress gave Fannie and Freddie the go-ahead to finance it all by buying loans from banks, then repackaging and securitizing them for resale on the open market.

That's how the contagion began.

With those changes, the subprime market took off. From a mere $35 billion in loans in 1994, it soared to $1 trillion by 2008.

"This is essentially a tax on 401ks, IRAs, pensions, mutual funds, that was even bigger than the financial "bailout package," which was a measley 750 billion - most of which the american people would have recouped in a decade."

Quoted for truth. Nice to see someone posting here that can use their brain.

Dems and media spend 8 years saying Bush stole the election and Bush lied (which he never did, look at what Clinton and Kerry said about Iraq in 98, they agreed with taking out Saddam and the CIA director under Bush was a holdover from Clinton, appointed by Clinton)

And so now the president they made a career of tearing down is not trusted because they made him untrustworthy by their attacks.

Second, the Dems blocked Freddi and Fannie reforms several years ago proposed by McCain and other Republicans because the Dems were getting hefty campaign contributions from Freddie and Fanny and now the head of one of them is one of the top guys on Obama's campaign!

What a bunch of cowards in Congress. Covering their backsides to protect their office.

Happy to be wrong, but you have no idea how bad it is going to get. Heaven help someone who is trying to buy or sell a house, borrow or refinance a business loan, or at a company that does not offer lifetime employment.

Beyond small business, farmers, etc., the ability to borrow for large sound companies will only get worse. No investment, means layoffs.

I doubt it, but hopefully your job is as secure as those who sold their vote for reelection.

Sharon said, "Well, I hope all you brilliant economists
are happy when people start losing their jobs, people's retirements are ruined and we suffer an economic catastrophe the likes of which haven't happened since the Great Depression."

The brilliant economists who have been predicting this meltdown for years will not cheer the coming recession. Did you hear Ron Paul cheering in the House today? He looked quite solemn to me. If only the government had passed his housing bill in 2003 to reign in Fannie and Freddie, we would not be in this mess. But we are where we are. High debt, easy credit, and government mandates created the bubbles. Even more debt, more credit, and total government control of the economy could only make things far, far worse.

Today we avoided, for the time being, going down the road toward a second great depression. Lacking energy independence, a food surplus, and gold backed money, and having an exhausted military, the country may not be strong enough to survive a second one.

And what does this say about Pelosi...She just had to take one last shot at the President (who supported the bill!!). The fact of the matter is that the Democrats, with their ties to Fannie and Freddie and their policies of politically correct lending are more responsible for the subprime mess the Republicans...

""I do believe we would have gotten there had the Speaker not made this partisan speech on the floor of the house," Boehner said.

It's too early to know whether Pelosi's speech, which laid much of the blame for the whole financial crisis at the foot of the Bush administration, really made much of a difference. But if several House Republicans actually did switch their votes on a momentous piece of legislation just because they were irritated by a speech, what does that say about them?"

Of all the lame bullhockey! Bush called them BEGGING them to vote for it. And they ignored him.

Given the invective which is hurled by the right at the left, those comments were bland as pudding - and in fact represented the opinions of Paulson and Berneke as the cause of the problem (too little regulation, too much isn't-Wall-St-clever nonsense for the past few years.)

Chidlish juvenile whining trying to esscape responsiblity for (a) their own votes and (b) the Republican party leader's inability to control its own members. (1/3rd of Ds ignored their leaders, 2/3rds of Rd ignored their leaders)

If Barney Frank had considered the Rebublin request in 2005 for more oversight he might have lost Dobbs friendship, because he was certainly making money from good ole Freddie as was Obama but we wouldn't be here!
If the Dems had not tried to use this crisis for political gain!
If the Dems had not used the Community Revitalization Act to create this nightmere.
If the Dems had not planted ACORN in the bill!
If, if, if......

And no Barney, the Republican's feelings are not hurt, the fact is that you, Harry and Nancy demonstrated that you can not be trusted!

If only the Democrats were more concerned about our country than they are in their party - we might have a bill!

Although Im opposed to the plan, it wouldnt be anywhere as costly as we've been sold. It gives the markets a timeout until we can find a rational way to value these acid debts. Once they can establish a value for these securities, the private sector will once again be able to guage their risk. I sell cars for a living, and just today, I saw a customer with a 699 credit score get turned down for a $20,000 auto loan on a new car.If you want to sell your home, a potential buyer will not be able to get a mortgage, and home equity loans?forget them.We have not had the plan or lack of a plan's ramifications explained properly, and now is not the time to play politics.

This bill failed because the American people did not want it as proposed. People called, wrote and emailed and raised hell. I am proud of those who voted against this bill. They need to start putting the American people first and it's time Congress starts listening to the people that sent them to Washington in the first place. All the time wasted adding all sorts of other junk to it. At least some members of Congress paid attention. Even though this will drip down to the little guy, maybe in the end they will get it. To blame McCain is absolutely ridiculous. This is about so much more than one candidate.

Well clearly a big part of the problem is a clueless population that prefers disaster to making the effort to understand why this bill would help them. Those who wish for a return of the 1930's may well get what they want.

If this Bill wasn't the right bill, then someone had better introduce a better on. Otherwise, the complete and total collapse of the US economy is on your head. There is nothing else to say about it. The American people need to understand that this thing is absolutely critical. People, don't stick your head in the sand and don't just say good riddance to the fat cats. Good riddance will be to your job, your savings, and your home.

"When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably. The tale is still unfolding, but when the dust settles, it will be judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits. So willing, in fact, that it used the power of the federal government in an unprecedented assault on state legislatures, as well as on state attorneys general and anyone else on the side of consumers."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html

(My take is that Lenders suckered average folks into mortgages which they could afford at first, then Lenders raised their monthly rate to an amount they could no longer afford! Because there were no Regulations or Oversight, those houses were then foreclosed on and then re-sold again to some other unsuspecting victim, until the whole deck of cards has collapsed. What is compelling, is that before the total collapse, CEO's pay themselves millions, sometimes billions as compensation pay for the said collapse!)

You don't let a mechanic tear up your car, bill you, and then take it back to the same mechanic only this time giving them a blank check.

THE MARKET HAS BEEN UP FOR FOREVER. It needs to correct, and we all lose some equity, but it will come back after the more timid element or quick cash clowns figure out that it's ok. GDP was up last quarter 3% (down 25% in great depression) and the unemployment is at 6% (26% during great depression).

I'm sick and tired of these fear politics. It's a bad bill. Anyone who supports this bill is a fool, plain and simple.

The reason markets have frozen in recent days is precisely because investors are basing their bets on the windfalls from a bailout. Were the government to say "no deal," and do nothing other than to keep monetary policy neutral or modestly expansive, then the market would simply reprice the real estate assets, take the necessary haircuts, learn a much-needed lesson, and then go back to proper intermediation. The only sin has been to let 3 banks take over a disproportionate share of the market, with FED assistance, but with no public obligation or any contrition or changes. The three banks should face anti-trust restraints and be broken up.

Thank you America for completely shafting the world economy. I haven't ever heard anything as stupid as "Main St. vs. Wall St." Every "Main St." in America is linked to Wall St. And every economy in the world is linked to the "Main St."s of America. There's was a horrible choice between the dysfunctional capitalism which we've got, the less-dysfunctional capitalism we could have had, and a non-capitalist system which years of state socialism failed to produce. Facile populism is just a refusal to face reality.

As hard as it might get, finally, it looks like United States might be on its way to be what founders of this country wanted it to be.

Bring back from abroad factories, keep our intellectual properly and give their jobs back to the American people. Finance couldn't be the only foundation of the economy - it was not a solution to the problem.

I'm sorry for those whose retirment investments are down as they near retirement, but in all honesty, it is your own fault.

If you are close to retirement, you should have almost no money in stocks. It should long ago have been put into federal bonds and stable fixed interest investments with low yields and limited risks. The fact you left the money in stocks is your own fault and not mine.

For the younger 401(k) holders, such as myself, you have a decade or two to go before retirement, plenty of time for the market to rebound. Your value may be down, but you still own the same number of shares. Hold on, let the collapse happen, and watch your money spring back in the next 5-7 years.

They should impose a special tax or levy on companies in the finance industry, and that money put in a bailout fund. The tax/levy can be removed after a few decades if the industry grows up and stops needing such bailouts.

Those companies make claims about the fancy "innovative" financial instruments being used to reduce risk, but fact is almost like clockwork they blow up every decade. So where's the risk reduction?

They are just new games for "the casino", and perhaps "Complex Financial Mumbo Jumbo" to distract people from the fact that when they win big, they take most of the winnings, when they lose big, the taxpayer pays.

Did not Obama take credit for this plan and I guess America spoke and said we don't. I am not going to bail out someone who should not have gotten a loan in the first place. I want accountability for congress. How about all the senators and congressman who took kickbacks like Obama dodd and frank and kerry pay that money back in. And how about Obama who got millions for his campaing from freddie and frannie and lehman and let's not forget acorn give that back to. Like Michelle Obama today I am prouder than proud that our system of democracy actually worked that those congressman whether they be democrat or republican voted the way we the people who voted them in office wanted them to. I do not want a socialist society here in the good old USA. About time I say.

Democrats control the house and it's the Republican's fault for not getting the votes? Where is the anger at the Democratic leadership?? Thanks to pseudo-journalism from the likes of Ben Pershing, we are missing the real story here.

Rejoice, those of you who are contributing to 401(K)'s! The price you will pay for the shares in your next contribution just went down. Rejoice, everyone for whom energy costs are significant. The price of crude oil fell almost $10! Rejoice those of you who have responsibly saved up for a down-payment on a house, and who were prudent enough not to buy one for twice its historical value.

I am retired, and I am by no means "set for life." On paper, I lost quite a lot of money today (for me). I could not be happier.

Who cares about getting loans or credit, most of us cannot get any credit anyway. Either we got in over our heads or some illegal stole our ID and ruined our credit.

Even more of us have already lost jobs so we know a new car or home is out of the question.

As for your 401(k) I'm sorry you still have any money in them. It is not like you could have missed this coming. I closed out all my retirement accounts 2 years ago when I started noticing losses. And for owning stock, I would rather go to the Casinos, at least there I know the odds are stacked against me and what I need to do to win. And there is a shred of honesty amongst the Vegas theives.

Then there are those who were taught that taking on debt was almost on the same level as being a convicted felon.

None of you Pro-Rescue Package people listened to one word anyone said. This package would not save us. Bush, Paulson they all said that this was nothing more than a small bandaid. Things will still get bad. So you tell me, what is the difference from being in Hades to being in the deepest depth of Hades? NOTHING.

We are 25 years and several trillion dollars too late to save this sinking ship. Cheap and easy credit has killed the US.

Pelosi sure did not help by giving a floor speech blasting Bush, however truthfully, when she needed R's to vote yes. She also needed more votes from her own party and didn't get them. Some leader she is!

Republicans blew the whole deal and the market just dropped more than 700 points. They're blaming a "speech" by Nancy Pelosi for kiboshing the thing. Don't believe it for a minute. House minority leaders couldn't get the votes. They failed. McCain offered his "leadership." He failed. But give them the benefit of the doubt. Let's ASSUME Republicans are telling the truth. If they're THAT petty that they'd cause a market crash over hurt feelings from a speech, the whole lot of them should be eliminated.

All of you who are praising the "courageous" Republicans for opposing this bill should read this, from Time's web site:

"Nate Silver took a look, and while this isn't surprising, it tells you a lot:

Among 38 incumbent congressmen in races rated as "toss-up" or "lean" by Swing State Project, just 8 voted for the bailout as opposed to 30 against: a batting average of .211.
By comparison, the vote among congressmen who don't have as much to worry about was essentially even: 197 for, 198 against.

Remember, telephone calls to congressional offices were running about 100 to 1 against this bill.

And he updates his own post:

UPDATE: A helpful reader named Matt Glassman passed along the fact that, among 26 congressmen NOT running for re-election (almost all of whom are Republicans), 23 voted in favor of the bill, as opposed to 2 against and one abstaining. H/T to commenter Trifecta for calling this to our attention."

Those who faced a tough reelection bid, mainly Republicans, voted No. Those who didn't face the threat of reelection, mainly Republicans, voted Yes.

Obama said McCains response was equivalent to Katrina. Friday Morning Obama went to the GYM. After the debates he never returned to Washington. Reid. Pelosi and Obama lied. They never had a solid deal. Even 40% of Dems voted NO.

Yes there was poor marketing, and people seem not to understand that this is our hard earned savings at risk, our retirement, our parent's income, and our jobs, businesses, and homes that will be harmed by the failure to pass the bill. However, these Representatives claim to be our leaders and some of them voted against an economic rescue because they thought a speech was partisan? Shame on them. Suck it up folks and actually GOVERN.

The Democrats did just fine on this. It was the Republicans that were playing games, they wanted the bill to pass, but then they were going to run ads for the next month against the bailout in every close district in the country. I bet they even had the TV ads ready.

Unfortunately, those who voted against this, thinking perhaps that they're punishing the greedy on Wall Street, are only succeeding in punishing the millions of Americans who have their retirement savings tied up in IRAs, 401Ks, and even the traditional pension funds which are all in one degree or another dependent on the market. We're the ones whose life savings are bleeding red ink all over the place this afternoon.

In their misguided attempt to punish the greedy on Wall Street, they're also making it more difficult, if not impossible, for small business and prospective,otherwise qualified home buyers, to get the credit they need at rates they can afford. Now that's certainly not going to do anything to help our economy, is it?

The bottom line is the Greedy on Wall Street wouldn't have gotten away with their unbridled greed if we hadn't engaged in a suicidal rush to deregulate the markets, if Congress had not listened to former Sen. Phil Gramm and others and left regulations in place, we would never have needed this bill.

Now, having allowed the foxes into the chicken coop, conservatives won't do anything to protect the chickens.

Either they don't care about working Americans who rely on their savings or they're woefully ignorant of way our economy is currently structured. I think Rep. Pelosi should keep the House in session until they pass a workable bill, even if that means keeping them there until and through Nov. 5.

Pelosi sure did not help by giving a floor speech blasting Bush, however truthfully, when she needed R's to vote yes. She also needed more votes from her own party and didn't get them. Some leader she is!
Posted by: Walt | September 29, 2008 4:41 PM
_______________________________

Did she get a majority of her party? Did sne get a majority of Republcans..Look Pal it's did not pass because the Republicans would not pass it! Don't come here with your Karl Rove Spin BS. WE AIN'T BUYING..PERIOD!!!

The House will not pass this plan now. All members are up for re-election, and the electorate is incensed at what they see is welfare for the wealthy, among other complaints. Regardless of the merits of these negative perceptions, incumbent congress persons, regardless of their personal take on all of this, have to worry that a yea vote will result in loss of their seats. The problem is that there will be no indicators of the success or failure of the plan before the election. No one will be able to really prove if it is a good idea or not by then. Doubt advantages nay sayers. There will be a voter revolt. It looks as if nothing is going to get done until after the elections. Does this help Obama or McCain; well, there has been an eight year Republican administration, and except for two years the Republicans have controlled congress. The Republicans in the House defeated the plan, even though it was proposed by a Republican administration. The plan should have been defeated, but the Republicans are probably going to be held responsible for the resulting economic turmoil, if it is long lasting. It will be interesting to see the spinmisters at work. In reality there is enough blame for all, but no one is yet ready to carry that thought through ot its conclusion.

First banks collaspe and then companies collaspe. Jobs will fold. If this thing isn't settled, many will be out of work by years end. Do you realize most pay is borrowed from creditors? Most people with direct deposit can access that money because of credit. Do you want a paper check that has to clear before payment. If you think thats something you haven't seen nothing yet.

Jon wrote: "THE MARKET HAS BEEN UP FOR FOREVER. It needs to correct, and we all lose some equity,"
******************************************

The market isn't the problem, that is the way we keep score. The problem is the rules of the game. Every day banks have to account the market price of the assets they have. Periodically the credit agencies (S&P. Moody's etc) come and say Mr. Bank I need to see your balance sheet. The credit rater sees how much more risk the balance sheet of the bank has because of deteriorating mortgages (because enough people aren't paying their loans on time) and then reduces the banks credit rating. As a result the bank has to increase the amount of cash is has on hand, and in some cases it cannot raise enough to open it's doors for business. You think a bank like that can lend money, hell no, and other banks are scared to lend to other banks as well not knowing which ones have crappy balance sheets.

There are only two solutions, get the bad mortgages off the balance sheets of the banks and auction them off which re-prices (we're assuming their is still a livable house on the property), or the govt guarantees every mortgage for the next 30 years.

You can price the first scenario, you can't the second. All the govt was going to do was temporarily take possesion of the mortgages until they could auction them off. If things went well, we might have made some money. The treasury does know how to do auctions, in the 1990's they auctioned off the wireless spectrum your cell phones are using today.

With today's vote, the mortgages stay on the books, people continue to not pay their mortgages, values decline, reserve ratios go up, and we continue to spiral downward into the abyss, oh, and this time, we bring down the world with us.

Today's no vote did nothing to solve the problem of declining mortgage values due to irresponsible citizens buying above their means. I just hope my company's line of revolving credit isn't shut down this week so they make payroll.

I'm glad it failed. The defeat of this ill conceived bill is a victory for the average family. One post mentioned something about not getting a loan. That's bull, I just got an auto loan yesterday because I can pay it back. The mess, in part, is based on the stupid practice of giving people high rate loans they could not and would not ever pay back. Then giving that money over to some gamblers on wall street.

Government and Wall Street tanked the housing markets, and the larger banking sector along with it by their overt actions. While it has not reached Main Street, it will. Wall Street and Government must be rended before Main Street can bail them out. In order for that to happen, all of us must go through a severe and prolonged amount of pain. Otherwise, Congress will continue to do what it is doing, and Wall Street will continue to do what IT is doing. Addiction is a terrible thing EVEN to witness. Both government and the Street need to RADICALLY re-think their lot in American life, even though Joe and Jane will suffer also. But we will adjust. I can only hope that the highly specialized units in New York and DC can also find meaning in life after the one they sent south.

I agree with this editorial's analysis that it's really just all politics as usual. It's an election year. Most Reps are trying to cover their butts more than worry about their people.

Those who voted "No" did so just so they can say "I voted NO because I care about the American people" and will more than likely vote "Yes" for the next draft just so they can say "See, I care about the American people, which is why I voted YES."

It's just politics as usual. Whenever it's a hot topic, it's safer to vote NO upfront so you can then turn around and vote YES for the inevitable second draft that will likely pass anyway.

They're POLITICANS people. Ethics or morals or concern for our well-being has little to do with it. They want to appeal to ALL VOTERS.

I just dont believe in bailing out rich screw ups. Nobody ever bails us out, so how come we have to be nice to the guys who were stealing money from us day and night? Why dont they bail themselves out? The rich need to suffer too and the last thing I need is them to feel better about how poorly they have done. Republicans are just trying to save their asses. There is no turning back now that you guys screwed up everything.

The american majority gave you leadership and trusted you to be good citizens. Now you have destroyed that trust! X out bad leadership in this country, vote AGAINST the republicans this year!

THOSE RICH WALL STREET SPECULATING GOP REPUBLICANS WHO DROVE THE BUS INTO THE DITCH, WILL NOT BE TRUSTED TO DRIVE THE BUS OUT OF THAT DITCH.

SUPER RICH GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET SPECULATORS AND THEIR GOP REPUBLICAN HAND PICKED STOOGES IN THE WHITE HOUSE ADMINISTRATION, SENATE, SUPREME COURT, TREASURY, SEC AND CONGRESS TOGETHER HAVE $1 TRILLION WORTH OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’S ASSETS (DOMESTIC AND HIDDEN ABROAD) THAT MUST BE RETURNED TO THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES.

AMERICA WANTS ITS $1 TRILLION BACK NOW AND CRIMINAL TRIALS FOR ALL INVOLVED IN THIS CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

THOSE GOP REPUBLICAN CORPORATE EXECUTIVES WHO STOLE AND SQUANDERED AVERAGE AMERICANS’ MONEY ON HIGH RISK UNSECURED WALL STREET LAS VEGAS STYLE SPECULATIONS SHOULD NOT BE REWARDED WITH MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR COMPENSATION PACKAGES SUBSIDIZED BY THE TAXPAYERS.

THESE GOP SUPER RICH REPUBLICAN CORPORATE EXECUTIVES, SPECULATORS AND CONGRESSIONAL STOOGES SHOULD BE IN HANDCUFFS. ALL OF THEIR ASSETS SHOULD BE CONFISCATED, LIQUIDATED AND RETURNED THE TREASURY (AMERICAN PEOPLE).

LET THE TRIALS BEGIN: GOP SUPER RICH REPUBLICAN FLEECING OF AMERICA

CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES VERSUS GOP SUPER RICH GOP REPUBLICAN CRIMINALS

ACT QUICKLY, ACT QUICKLY, ACT QUICKLY
IS NOT THIS THE SAME THING THAT THOSE GOP REPUBLICAN CRIMINALS SAID TO START THE ILLEGAL IRAQ WAR!

MOOSE COMMUNITY COLLEGE SARAH PALIN FEARS SHARING THE STAGE WITH LAW SCHOLAR JOE BIDEN

Hmmm, let's see. We have a bunch of republicans whining about wanting these CEOs to keep their fortunes, multiple houses and cars, and they want the taxpayers to bail them out. But when the taxpayer wanted help to keep THEIR homes, they were called a bunch of whiners by these SAME republicans and were given NO bailout.

Why are their oversized fortunes more important than the rest of America's modest and undersized ones?

Now, for the last time, once and for all, explain to me how Obama is the elitist and the republicans are "just like you and me." Go ahead. I triple dog dare you.

GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET SUPERCAPITALISM AT ITS WORST

Executive salaries, CEO bonuses, grand robberies of the U.S. TREASURY in the $MILLIONS, $BILLIONS, and $TRILLIONS.

GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET SUPERCAPITALISTS robbed the AMERICAN PEOPLE of a $Trillion. RULE OF LAW states that the AMERICAN PEOPLE will be protected and all private properties, money, and wealth domestic and abroad owned by GOP REPUBLICAN SUPERCAPITALISTS taking part in robbing the U.S. TREASURY (AMERICAN PEOPLE) will immediately be confiscated and returned to the U.S. TREASURY (AMERICAN PEOPLE).

REPLACE GOP REPUBLICAN CEO GOLDEN PARACHUTES WITH CRIMINAL TRIALS AND PROPERTY CONFISCATION. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL PREVAIL AND THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION WILL BE REINSTATED. LONG LIVE FREEDOM AND JUSTICE. CORPORATE TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY WILL BE THE LAW OF THE LAND.

You asked for it and you got it. GOP REPUBLICANS INSIDERS McCain, Bush, Cheney, Paulson, and Rice were hired by Super-Capitalists (Super Wealthy GOP REPUBLICANS) to start Illegal Oil Wars against Oil producing Nations and DEREGULATE (eliminate AMERICAN PEOPLE PROTECTION) the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (White House, Congress, Supreme Court), TREASURY and WALL STREET. These INSIDERS did exactly what they were paid to do. Past GOP REPUBLICANS (Nixon, Reagan, Bush I) and current GOP REPUBLICANS (Bush II, Cheney, Rice, McCain, Paulson) have a credibility factor of zero. Americans no longer believe them, the World has never believed them and now they are done. They came in with the 9/11 attack upon the AMERICAN PEOPLE and leave with the Wall Street $1Trillion attack upon the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Wave after wave after wave the GOP REPUBLICANS attack the AMERICAN PEOPLE based on the premise of disrespect for anyone who is not a GOP RICH REPUBLICAN. Either you are in their group (GOP RICH REPUBLICAN) or out (debt ridden worker bee / victim). GOP REPUBLICANS view the AMERICAN PEOPLE as gullible sheep perpetually fattened with debt and led to the subhuman existence slaughter. When slavery (free labor) ended GOP RICH REPUBLICANS attacked and enslaved the people of the world through unbalanced trade. Now that foreign sweatshops are demanding better pay and treatment, GOP RICH REPUBLICANS are attacking the AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS. GOP RICH REPUBLICANS are banking on the idea that the AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS are non-thinking drones fat with artificial food, high on Wall Street sponsored imported drugs (legal / illegal), and choked with clutter, debt and noise.

Through massive GOP REPUBLICAN SPONSORED DEREGULATIONS, GOP REPUBLICAN CEOs, Treasury Secretary, Wall Street Speculators, White House Administration, Cabinet Members, and their insider friends each walked away with more than $20,000,000 annually of money stolen directly from the U.S. TREASURY (AMERICAN PEOPLE). After eight years of GRAND FRAUD AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, thousands of GOP REPUBLICANS ROBBED OUR UNITED STATES TREASURY OF $1TRILLION (ACTS OF TREASON AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE).

The AMERICAN PEOPLE will hold ALL GOP REPUBLICANS INVOLVED in these ACTS OF TREASON accountable before a TRIAL. ALL GOP REPUBLICANS INVOLVED in these ACTS OF TREASON will have ALL OF THEIR PROPERTIES (corporate and private, domestic and foreign sheltered) CONFISCATED, SOLD and RETURNED to OUR NATIONAL TREASURY (AMERICAN PEOPLE). The UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION (WILL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE) shall prevail, despite the criminal efforts of GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET SUPER-CAPITALIST CRIMINALS.

CONGRESS WILL NOT ADJOURN UNTIL AFTER THE GOP REPUBLICAN PARTY FIX THEIR COLOSSAL MESS

GOP (GOOD OLDBOY PRIVATEERS)

Obama has 8 years experience as a State Senator, 4 years in the US Senate, taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, etc. Obama’s very high intellectual capacity allows him to analyze situations and make sound decisions. How can you even compare Palin’s GED from Moose Community College credentials to these?

GOP REPUBLICAN JOHN MCCAIN WALL STREET DEREGULATIONS
GOP REPUBLICAN JOHN MCCAIN ALSO WANTED TO PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY (BONEHEAD)
GOP REPUBLICAN JOHN MCCAIN sponsored landmark legislation in 1999 that removed the walls between banks, investment firms and insurance companies. GOP REPUBLICAN JOHN MCCAIN bill allowed a company like AIG to expand beyond its traditional insurance business (which is still profitable) into exotic new extremely high risk products that brought the company down and created this colossal mess.

Average Americans are becoming poorer, because GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET super rich SPECULATORS and corporate CEOs are paying themselves, business partners, friends, and family members at least $20,000,000 annually from MONEY STOLEN FROM THE U.S. TREASURY. These major crimes committed by WALL STREET SPECULATORS AND CEOs have gone beyond greed and into acts of treason against the AMERICAN PEOPLE. Seize the stolen money and properties valued in the $TRILLIONS back from these super criminals for attacking America. Those stolen $MILLIONS / $BILLIONS / $TRILLIONS belong to the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

RULE OF LAW states that the People of the United States will be defended. Those who attack American Citizens will be prosecuted. WALL STREET SPECULATORS and CORPORATE CEOs dictatorship over the AMERICAN PEOPLE is over. Average Americans are not going to accept WALL STREET CORPORATE CRIMES anymore. Rights of Citizen and Average Workers of the United States will be enforced. The AMERICAN PEOPLE will always come before corporate interests, because Americans Love America more than Wall Street Speculators love greed.

NO MORE WALL STREET IMPORTATION OF ILLEGAL CARTEL DRUGS
NO MORE WALL STREET MASS GUN SALES
NO MORE WALL STREET ILLEGAL WARS
NO MORE WALL STREET WILD SPECULATION AND IRRESPONSIBLE LEVERAGE
NO MORE WALL STREET SOFT PORNOGRAPHY ON PRIME TIME TELEVISION
NO MORE WALL STREET MASS VIOLENCE ON PRIME TIME TELEVISION
NO MORE WALL STREET HATE RADIO
NO MORE WALL STREET UNAUTHORIZED SPYING ON AMERICAN CITIZENS
NO MORE WALL STREET ILLEGAL CREDIT SCORES
NO MORE WALL STREET OVERSEAS TAX HAVENS
NO MORE WALL STREET OUTSOURCING AMERICAN JOBS
NO MORE WALL STREET BUYING AMERICAN POLITICIANS

GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET $TRILLION FRAUD AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

GOP REPUBLICAN Congress resisted tougher regulation and permitted WALL STREET to run out of control at obscenely high LEVERAGE (OBSCENELY HIGH BORROWED MONEY) RATIOS perpetrating intentional fraud against the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET leaders intentionally deceived customers and lenders into taking hazardous risks for short-term rewards regardless of the long-term dangers to the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Mortgages went bad. The powerful high leverage went into reverse. Losses eroded firms' capital bases and raised doubts about their survival.

Financial firms took major stupid and wasteful risks that severely damaged the American Economy and impeded economic recovery.

GOP REPUBLICAN STOCK MARKET $TRILLION FRAUD has deepened consumers' pessimism, fear and reluctance to spend. There may be more failures of FINANCIAL FIRMS.

How were we ever made to believe that the now-collapsing GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET model ever made sense? Common sense should have told us that making RISKY BETS with HUGE AMOUNTS of BORROWED MONEY was a DANGEROUS GAME; if the bets pay off you make money beyond your wildest dreams, but if they go bad you face utter ruin.

Common sense should have told us that betting fortunes on meaningless fluctuations in stock, bond or currency values (McCain sponsored deregulated hedge funds) was about as productive as a trip to Las Vegas. Common sense should have told us that buying and selling exotic securities based on other securities based on bundles of mortgages that were treated like mere numbers on a balance sheet (no recognition that the whole iffy construct was based on real people living in real houses that they might or might not be able to afford) was not an intelligent endeavor.

Somehow, we all forgot that "HIGHLY LEVERAGED" is just another way of saying "DEEPLY INDEBTED." Now we've had a wake-up call, and maybe the erstwhile Masters of the Universe will have to stop playing with imaginary money and go back to using the real stuff.

RULE OF LAW WILL ENFORCE CONFISCATION OF ALL GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET SPECULATORS’ AND CEOS’ PERSONAL PROPERTIES RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR ECONOMY’S MELTDOWN. All money and properties of the Super Rich CEOs and WALL STREET Speculators domestic and abroad will be confiscated and returned to the United States TREASURY and the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Comments uttered by Sarah Palin has angered Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton who described Sarah Palin as an opportunist with no qualifications. Senator Hillary Clinton also stated that John McCain and Sarah Palin’s records on women’s rights are abominable. The country cannot withstand anymore George Bush failures cloaked in McCain/Palin. Asking Sarah Palin to become Vice President is like asking the grazing moose behind her trailer to pilot the shuttle.

National Organization of Women (NOW) Endorsed Pro-Women’s Rights ticket Obama / Biden for their outstanding work bettering the lives of women.

During her first term as Mayor, Palin went on an intense firing spree by sacking, or requesting resumes and resignation letters from the chief of police, finance director, public works director, and librarian.

In October of 1996, Palin consulted the city librarian about censoring "objectionable" books. The librarian was shocked and responded that the books were selected "on the basis of national selection criteria of libraries this size" and would resist all efforts to ban or remove any books from the library. A few months later Emmons received a letter from Palin stating that she had been terminated from her job. Emmons was reinstated the next day after public outcry.

Long time Alaskan acquaintance described Sarah Palin as a malicious, conniving opportunist, a reckless spender, and power abuser. Initially Palin supported the 'bridge to nowhere' project and even wore t-shirts that supported the project. When she realized that the project was not supported by the public she decided to back off.

Palin is an avid pro-lifer. Teen pregnancies are a major dilemma facing the nation today. The government spent $1 billion in supporting abstinence-only sex education programs since 1996. In the case of Palin's daughter, such programs are failing us. Palin is comfortable with giving her own daughter a choice, but wants to take away that choice from the rest of the nation.

By picking a young, attractive and vivacious woman as his partner in crime, McCain hoped to pull in all the disappointed Clinton supporters. This was his crucial mistake, because Sarah Palin is the antithesis of Hillary Clinton. She stands against women rights and would reverse women's rights by fifty years. Women are not as gullible as McCain and his advisors had hoped that they would be. Just because McCain placed a young woman in front of the crowd does not mean women will automatically vote for her without any question. Women will soon realize that Sarah Palin is an anti-choice, homophobic, polar bear, wolf, moose, and deer killing machine.

Sarah Palin is incapable of writing a speech. The speech given by her at the Republican National Convention was written long before she was considered for McCain’s running mate by the computer. McCain had never heard of Palin until after the computer printed her name one day before his announcement.

The thought that Sarah Palin will do anything in the White House is unsettling, because she is a unhinged lunatic who will mess up and give the public the perception that women cannot be in power. Hillary Rodham Clinton and women throughout the country are very angry that Sarah “moose hunter” Palin is in such an important position. Four out of Sarah’s five best friends have committed to Barack Obama.

GOP REPUBLICANS ARE AUTHORITARIANS WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN FREE SPEECH OR DEMOCRACY. GOP REPUBLICAN ONLY INTERESTS ARE POWER AND MONEY.

GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET SUPERCAPITALISM AT ITS WORST

Executive salaries, CEO bonuses, grand robberies of the U.S. TREASURY in the $MILLIONS, $BILLIONS, and $TRILLIONS.

GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET SUPERCAPITALISTS robbed the AMERICAN PEOPLE of a $Trillion. RULE OF LAW states that the AMERICAN PEOPLE will be protected and all private properties, money, and wealth domestic and abroad owned by GOP REPUBLICAN SUPERCAPITALISTS taking part in robbing the U.S. TREASURY (AMERICAN PEOPLE) will immediately be confiscated and returned to the U.S. TREASURY (AMERICAN PEOPLE).

PALIN FAILIN RETURNED HOME TO 2,000 ALASKAN PROTESTERS WHO CHEERFULLY CHANTED "O-BAM-AH.

Gov. Sarah Palin returned home to 2,000 protesters outside the Anchorage library who wanted to correct the widespread impression that the Last Frontier endorses her candidacy.

"Last week a group of women were sitting around talking about this perception that all of Alaska supports Sarah Palin. We apparently hit a nerve and started a movement,"

"My mom is from Alaska. She's a working mother. She's good looking," said Nolan. "So she seems to be qualified to be vice president."

Asking Sarah Palin to become the Vice President is like asking the grazing moose behind her trailer to pilot the shuttle.

Sarah Palin Failin Protesters Held Signs Reading:

Bush In A Skirt
Palin Be Failin
Jesus Was a Community Organizer
Palin Failin: Thanks But No Thanks
Smearing Alaska's Good Name One Scandal @ a Time
Candidate To Nowhere
Rape Kits Should Be Free
Voted For Her Once: Never Again!
Community Organizers are the Real Patriots
Barbies for War
I Shall Not Be Pandered To
Give Palin Failin Your Vote AND Your Draft Age Child
Sarah Palin Failin: So Far Right She's Wrong
Alaska Is Not Frisco
Coat Hangers for McCain
Sarah Palin Failin, Undoing 150 Years of American Feminism
Hockey Mama for Obama (on a hockey stick)

McCain / Palin Failin are rejected for their anti-women stance and votes against Women Rights

PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL CHOICES

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're 'exotic, different.'

Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, and its a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer,
become President of the Harvard Law Review,
create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters,
spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor,
spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people,
become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee,
spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13
million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign
Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees,
you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years
on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less
than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000
people, and cook caribou/grizzly/wolf stew, then you're qualified to become the country's second
highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters,
all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress,
and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month,
you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including
the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only,
with no other option in sex education in your state's school system
while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm
to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family,
your family's values don't represent America's.

If you're husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction
and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and
once was a member of a group that advocated: the secession of Alaska from the USA,
your family is extremely admirable.

McCain / Palin Failin are rejected for their anti-women stance and votes against Women Rights

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BROWN SUPPORTS BARACK OBAMA

LONDON - BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN voiced support for UNITED STATES DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BARACK OBAMA, saying he would help Americans struggling with an economic downturn.

In a move seen by some British media as a break with a political convention requiring foreign leaders to remain neutral ahead of US elections, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BROWN praised MR. OBAMA as a fellow “progressive politician” who would help ordinary Americans in tough times. With eight weeks to go before the presidential election, MR. OBAMA and his Republican rival John McCain are neck-and-neck in domestic opinion polls.

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BROWN described the race for the White House as “electrifying” and said: “It is the DEMOCRATS who are generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times.”

“To help prevent people from losing their home, BARACK OBAMA has proposed a Foreclosure Prevention Fund to increase emergency pre-foreclosure counselling, and help families facing repossession,” he wrote in an article in The Monitor magazine, a monthly political publication.

2008 UNITED STATES DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL RACE

DEMOCRAT HARVARD LAW VS. GOP REPUBLICAN D STUDENTS

OBAMA OF HARVARD LAW AND PRESIDENT OF HARVARD LAW REVIEW
BIDEN OF SYRACUSE LAW

MCCAIN OF NAVY ACADEMY LAST PLACE D STUDENT
PALIN FAILIN OF MOOSE COLLEGE

GOP Republican Wall Street SRO (Self Regulatory Organization) Robber Baron Supercapitalism Is Down And Will No Longer Rob the U.S. TREASURY and AMERICAN PEOPLE

THEY ARE ALL GOP REPUBLICAN OOOOOIIIIILLLLL MILLIONAIRES AND OIL STOCKHOLDERS

GOP REPUBLICAN OOOOOIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLL IS THE NEW CRACK
GOP REPUBLICAN OOOOOIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLL IS THE NEW CRACK
GOP REPUBLICAN OOOOOIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLL IS THE NEW CRACK

CAN YOU SAY GOP REPUBLICAN CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, ROB OUR U.S. TREASURY, AND SPECULATE FOR OBSCENELY HIGH PROFIT RETURNS ON WALL STREET OIL STOCKS

WAKE UP AMERICA, BECAUCE THE WORLD ALREADY KNOWS ABOUT THE CRIMINAL GOP REPUBLICAN PARTY OF CONSPIRATORS

NATIONALIZE U.S. OIL FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE AS A VITAL RESOURCE

AMERICA AND AMERICANS FIRST

NO MORE GOP REPUBLICAN WALL STREET OOOOOIIIIILLLLL SPECULATION AND FRAUD AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

IF YOU SAY THAT YOU LOVE AMERICA, THEN PROVE IT AND STOP THE GOP REPUBLICAN RAIDERS UPON OUR U.S. TREASURY AND OUTSOURCING OF U.S. JOBS

GOP Republican Wall Street Get Rich Quick By Robbing America TREASURY Wild Speculators Created The Enormous National Debt, So Make Them Pay For It And Balance Our Budget.
GOP Republican Wall Street Supercapitalism Speculators Have Committed Treason Against Our Country.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON ANGERED BY SARAH PALIN FAILIN’S REMARKS

Will the GOP Republican get rich by selling America party take credit for any of their disasters? GOP Republicans are successful at failing and hurting OUR COUNTRY in the eyes of the WORLD. Can we really afford to ignore what the ENTIRE WORLD THINKS OF US?

How does the WORLD perceive AMERICA led by Barack Obama? Extremely favorable.

How does the WORLD perceive AMERICA led by John McCain? Extremely negative.

McCain has perpetually been a failure from school until now.
Palin Failin has perpetually been a failure (with a hillbilly hockey mom accent) from day one until now. Her bear hunting Arctic outback kids prove it.

Do you really need someone to tell you these basic facts? Under the Freedom of Information Act, all of this information is available free if you choose to type in the questions.

Lets prove to the Europeans and the World that we are not stupid, because they think that we are after two terms of Forrest Gump Bush.

D Student Crash Every Plane McCain and Hillbilly Trailer Palin Failin are not reflective of the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

If Palin Failin had a brain, then she would have considered the immense responsibilities demanded of the Office of the United States Vice President or President; and politely declined McCain’s crack induced invitation. GOP Republican Party is a joke.

If FOX NEWS does not clean up it’s filthy RACIST acts of discrimination, then American and European audiences will B O Y C O T T FOX RACIST NEWS.

GOP Republican Wall Street Get Rich Quick By Robbing America TREASURY Wild Speculators Created The Enormous National Debt, So Make Them Pay For It And Balance Our Budget.
GOP Republican Wall Street Supercapitalism Speculators Have Committed Treason Against Our Country.

REPORT SAYS GOP REPUBLICAN OIL AGENCY RAN AMOK

INVESTIGATION OF GOP REPUBLICAN OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

INVESTIGATION OF GOP REPUBLICAN MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE OIL MARKETING GROUP

GOP REPUBLICAN Government officials in charge of collecting BILLIONS of dollars worth of royalties from OIL and gas companies accepted gifts, steered contracts to favored clients and engaged in drug use and illicit sex with employees of the energy firms, federal investigators reported.

Investigators from the Interior Department's inspector general's office said more than a dozen employees, including the former director of the OIL royalty program, took meals, ski trips, sports tickets and golf outings from industry representatives. The report alleges that the former director, also netted more than $30,000 from improper outside work.

The report from Inspector General contains fresh allegations about the practices at the beleaguered royalty-in-kind program of Interior's Minerals Management Service, which last year collected more than $4 billion worth of OIL and natural gas from companies given contracts to tap energy on federal and Indian lands and offshore. The revelations come as Congress is set to consider opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and areas off the coast of Florida for drilling.

The royalty-in-kind program, based near Denver, allows energy companies to pay the government in OIL and gas, rather than cash, for the privilege of drilling on government land. It has been the subject of multiple investigations since 2006 by the Interior Department's secretary, its inspector general, the Justice Department and Congress for alleged mismanagement and conflicts of interest.

In the report released yesterday, investigators said they "discovered a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" in which employees accepted gratuities "with prodigious frequency." The report cited one e-mail from a Shell Pipeline representative asking a woman in the royalty office to attend "tailgating festivities" at a Houston Texans football game: "You're invited . . . have you and the girls meet at my place at 6am for bubble baths and final prep."

Besides Shell, the energy company employees mentioned in the report worked for Chevron, Hess and Gary-Williams Energy. The social outings detailed in the report included alcohol-, cocaine- and marijuana-filled parties where certain employees of the Minerals Management Service were nicknamed the "MMS Chicks" by the energy employees. The companies paid for federal workers to attend football and baseball games, PGA Tour events, Colorado ski trips, paintball outings and "treasure hunts," investigators found.

"The OIL INDUSTRY holds shocking sway over the ADMINISTRATION and even KEY FEDERAL EMPLOYEES,". "This is why we must not allow BIG OIL'S AGENDA to be jammed through CONGRESS."

The current director of the Minerals Management Service, said that he takes the report "very seriously".
Employees identified in the report told investigators that they didn't think ethics rules applied to them because of their "unique" role in the agency and that they needed to socialize with industry representatives for "market intelligence," according to the report. Those employees, some of whom have been transferred to different offices, have been recommended for internal administrative action.

The inspector general's release comprised three separate reports, including one devoted to the program's director. It alleges that Smith improperly worked part time for Geomatrix Consultants, an Oakland, Calif.-based environmental and engineering firm, and marketed the company to government clients.

Additionally, the report said that the director had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate whom he paid to buy cocaine, promising her a bonus in return. The director admitted to the sexual encounter.

The director, who now works for a private OIL company in Denver, did not respond to requests for comment. Investigators referred their findings to federal prosecutors.

Justice officials also declined to comment on their decision about the criminal case against the highest-ranking official named in the report director of the Minerals Management Service, who worked in Washington. She is accused of improperly arranging a million-dollar deal for two retired employees.

The wife of the procurement policy administrator for the WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET, retired from government service Jan. 31. She declined to comment on the report. She told investigators she had a "personal issue. The Justice Department's decision to charge created a rift with Interior officials.

One of the two retired employees pleaded guilty in July to a federal conflict-of-interest charge related to the investigation. Another employee has been under investigation for similar conflict-of-interest allegations.

Before he left, Mayberry created a job for himself by writing the job description and the criteria for selecting the winning bidder, court documents show. He started a company out of his Texas home and was awarded a $150,000 contract in June 2003. He later hired Dial, the report said. Mayberry's firm collected $788,000 worth of contracts.

The royalty-in-kind program, which started as a small pilot project a decade ago, has been touted as a way to simplify the way OIL AND GAS COMPANIES pay for the right to drill on federal land and offshore. Instead of calculating the profit from a well, they can simply give the government one-eighth to one-sixth of whatever they take from the ground.

Revenue rose quickly, from $1.5 billion in 2004 to $4.3 billion last fiscal year. But the growth occurred "in an environment with relatively unstructured in-house oversight," the congressionally convened Royalty Policy Committee said in a December report. Previous reports have said that companies were allowed to revise their million-dollar bids for projects indiscriminately, that government workers routinely failed to seek out legal advice on complicated deals and that the agency used outdated computers and a $150 million software program that resulted in royalty money going uncollected.

A lawyer who represented states and tribes entitled to a cut of the royalties, said it was nearly impossible to get accurate numbers from the agency. "They kept hemming and hawing," she said.

In late 2006 questions arose over its handling of leases written in 1998 and 1999 that allowed major OIL companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to avoid BILLIONS of dollars in royalty payments.

Former Interior Department auditors accused the agency of failing to bill companies. "We weren't allowed to audit them. It was disturbing," said an auditor who sued the federal government for not collecting royalties. "You couldn't see what was going on."

The minerals agency director said that the harm done by the royalty employees was to public trust and TREASURY, and acknowledged that financial considerations were given to firms that gave favors to federal employees, and he said the contracts will be audited.

Do you really question the motives of GOP Republicans Criminals? America must Immediately Nationalize U.S. OIL and Gas For National Defense.

DEMOCRAT HARVARD LAW VS. GOP REPUBLICAN CRASH JET AND MUDVILLE

U.S. Presidents From Harvard Law
John Adams
John Quincy Adams
Rutherford Hayes
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
John Kennedy
Barack Obama

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain was privileged, given everything by both parents, and worked for nothing.

Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama grew up poor, raised by his Irish-American single white mother and Irish-American white working class maternal grand parents. Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama was given nothing and worked for everything.

Education

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain was a D student and graduated last in his class. D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain and McBush Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire share failed academic records. He partied constantly and dependent on favor handouts from his high ranking father and grandfather. D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain earned nothing on his own similar to McBush Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire. D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain is also Internet illiterate which slows down his information processing capacity. Is this good for the country?

Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama worked hard and became PRESIDENT OF THE HARVARD LAW REVIEW. Everything that Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama accomplished he did on his own. Irish-American Barack Obama’s HARVARD Scholarship ranks among the best. Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama’s hard work represents the American Dream.

Community Service

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain poor studies translated into poor performances in the military where he crashed several planes and recklessly endangered the lives of others. D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain was never trusted by his colleagues nor loved by his peers. The highlight of D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain’s career was getting shot down and becoming a prisoner. D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain served his country by getting handouts from his guards. Getting handouts seems to be D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain’s modem of operations. WillObscenelyRich Crash Every Plane McCain, who finished 894th out of 899 at the Naval Academy and who lost five jets, return competence to the White House? To lose one plane over Vietnam may be a heroic tragedy; to lose five planes here and there is carelessness.

Irish-American Barack Obama turned down large profits after graduating from HARVARD LAW to serve the community in Chicago where help was needed most. The community learned to trust and love Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama for his dedication to public service.

Marriage

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain walked out on his family to chase a younger woman who was on drugs, embezzling money from her company, stealing, and facing criminal charges, until her privileged family saved her from trial. D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain’s dysfunctional family represents chaos and lack of respect when he curses her in public.

Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama married an intelligent IVY LEAGUE attorney and adores his beautiful young daughters. Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama’s First Family represents what America is striving for. Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama has always been surrounded by and still maintains a great respect for women (Irish mother, Irish grandmother, sister, wife, and two daughters). If anyone is in tune with and favors the betterment of working American women, then it’s Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama.

The World loves Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama and will follow America’s leadership behind Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama.

If D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain had to make another emergency landing on a deserted island with Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama onboard as one of the passengers, then it is safe to say that D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain would assume the role of Gilligan, while Irish-American and Harvard Law Scholar Barack Obama would assume the role of the professor.

Navy pilot John Sidney D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain III should have never been allowed to graduate from the U.S. Navy flight school. He was a below average student and a lousy pilot. Had his father and grandfather not been famous four star U.S. Navy admirals, D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain III would have never been allowed in the cockpit of a military aircraft.

His father John S. "Junior" McCain was commander of U.S. forces in Europe later becoming commander of American forces in Vietnam while D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain III was being held prisoner of war. D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain III's grandfather John S. McCain, Sr. commanded naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

During his relative short stunt on flight status, D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain III lost five U.S. Navy aircraft, four in accidents and one in combat.

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain III lost jet number one in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while practicing landings. He was knocked unconscious by the impact coming to as the plane settled to the bottom.

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain's second crash occurred while he was deployed in the Mediterranean. Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral."

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain's third crash three occurred when he was returning from flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game.

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain's fourth aircraft loss occurred July 29, 1967, soon after he was assigned to the USS Forrestal as an A-4 Skyhawk pilot. While seated in the cockpit of his aircraft waiting his turn for takeoff, an accidently fired rocket slammed into D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain's plane. He escaped from the burning aircraft, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors, destroyed at least 20 aircraft, and threatened to sink the ship.

"Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I [D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain] did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship's name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant."

When the communist learned that D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain's father was Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., the soon-to-be commander of all U.S. Forces in the Pacific, he was rushed to Gai Lam military hospital.

The communist Vietnamese figured, because POW D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain's father was of such high military rank, that he was of royalty or the governing circle. Thereafter the communist bragged that they had captured "the crown prince."

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain had roughly 20 hours in combat. Since D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain got 28 medals, that equals out to a medal-and-a-half for each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys -- grunts on the ground -- who had more than 7,000 hours in combat where I'm sure a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison. The question really is how many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down.

D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain has been an unchecked master at manipulating an overly friendly and biased news media. The former POW turned Congressman, turned U.S. Senator, has managed to gloss over his failures as a pilot and collaborations with the enemy by exaggerating his military service and lying about his feats of heroism.

Former naval officer and the owner of an OOIIILLLL-trading company that inked defense contracts worth $1 billion is the modern presidential money man. The law forbids high-level supporters from writing huge checks, but with help from friends in the Middle East D Student Obscenely Rich Wall Street OOIIILLLL Millionaire Crash Every Plane McCain is receiving large donations.

If FOX NEWS does not clean up it’s filthy RACIST acts of discrimination, then American and European audiences will B O Y C O T T FOX RACIST NEWS.

Barak Obama proved why November's presidential election will end in a 50-state sweep. John Crash Every Plane McCain has no chance. It's like George Bush climbing into the ring with Mike Tyson; one thundering left hook and the Crawford Caligula would be sprawled across the canvas. "No mas"! The same fate awaits the crabby senator from Arizona. The polls are skewed to look like there's a political horse-race going on. There isn't. It's a complete rout. There's one well-toned thoroughbred striding from venue to venue electrifying the ever-increasing throngs, and one doddering, old mare limping towards the glue-factory. Someone should put a stop to it before Crash Every Plane McCain gets hurt.

At the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten, Obama extracted Old Glory from the burn-pile and gave Brand America a desperately needed shot of adrenaline. 200,000 ecstatic Germans jammed the streets in what turned out to be the political shindig of the year. Many of them were waving American flags and chanting, "Obama, Obama, Obama". It was like Jack Kennedy had risen from his moldy sepulcher and made his way across the pond for one last rousing ovation. Obama has the very same affect on crowds. Its a gift and he knows how to use it to great advantage.

"People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment, this is our time," Obama boomed. "I know my country has not perfected itself, we've made our share of mistakes and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions. But the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another."

What can we say about Obama's oratory skills that hasn't already been said? He is one of those unique characters who knows how to tap into the collective psyche and put them under his spell. He is the closest thing to a Pied Piper we've seen in the last half century. Whatever one thinks of his politics, his speeches are a welcome reprieve from the simian blabbering of President Dimwit.

"I speak to you not as a candidate for president, but as a citizen; a proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world." (Roaring applause)

JOHN Crash Every Plane McCain: Maverick or Freak?
Have you taken a look at the crowds at a Crash Every Plane McCain event. Usually, there aren't any. Typically, there are more journalists and cameramen then people; and even they look bored. It's the truth. He generates no enthusiasm at all. None. He may be the most uninspiring, tedious, pure-vanilla candidate of all time; a complete dud. I challenge anyone to recite from memory anything John Crash Every Plane McCain has ever said in his 40 years in office. Time's up! When Crash Every Plane McCain begins to talk, its a signal for women to pull out the nail-files and for men to figure out how they're going to get out of cutting the lawn this week. Really. No one listens.

And the people that do manage to drag themselves to his speeches out of a sense of obligation are (you guessed it) scowling white guys with baseball caps pulled tightly over their ears or nearly-ambulatory Korea-era Vets who think the United Nations is a communist front-group that's planning to air-drop blue-helmets into Duluth to take over the United States. Tin-foil hats anyone?

Popularity and charisma, how does one survive in politics with neither. That's the question, and it may be the biggest mystery of Crash Every Plane McCain's candidacy. He's just not a likable guy. No one ever talks about hanging out and having a beer with John Crash Every Plane McCain, because they know that he might go "Jackie Chan" and start busting the place up. And he's utterly impossible to listen to. His high-pitched squeaky voice is about two octaves higher than a dog-whistle and twice as annoying. So how is he going to beat Obama. It's a total mismatch.

Crash Every Plane McCain is the perfect candidate for the GOP Republic party that has completely collapsed. He's like the "Jolly Roger" on the front of an iodine bottle; Brand X. In 2000, the Republican Party boasted it was the "party of ideas". What ideas? The Republican Party has never had ideas because the corporate mandarins and blue-blooded kleptocrats that run the party are suspicious of ideas, ideology, doctrine, philosophy or anything else that veers from their primary objectives of crushing the poor, despoiling the environment, carpet-bombing brown people wherever they may be, and enriching themselves. That's all they care about. The task of the right-wing think-tanks is to treat "war and tax cuts" like they're ideas. They're not. But war and tax cuts ARE the two foundation blocks of the Republican Party. There's nothing else; there never has been. Don't look for ideas; there aren't any. GOP Republican get rich quick by defrauding the AMERICAN PEOPLE, robbing the National TREASURY, sending American jobs overseas, and raising the national debt.

Hold Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Crash Every Plane McCain accountable for the crimes they've committed during their time in office.

Obama is not a candidate; he's a phenomenon. Obama is an explosive, vital, charismatic politician. When he speaks people feel better about themselves and their country. And, they're more hopeful about the future, too. That's what makes him unbeatable.

Crash Every Plane McCain, on the other hand, is the perfect embodiment of his party; a rusty, broken-down hulk that's been stripped of its engine, its fenders and all its moving parts. Even the steering wheel is gone. It's a dead-loss; nothing is salvageable.

Crash Every Plane McCain is in way over his head. This election is going to be a real embarrassment for him. It's too bad. He should be back at the Phoenix Rest Home shooing kids off the front lawn instead of waiting for the ax to fall in November. It's a rotten way to end a career.

GOP Republican Wall Street SRO (Self Regulatory Organization) Robber Baron Supercapitalism Is Down And Will No Longer Rob the U.S. TREASURY and AMERICAN PEOPLE

GOP REPUBLICAN PLANE/TRAILER WRECK MCCAIN/PALIN FAILIN

With Wall Street OOOIIIIILLLLLL stocks paid under the table to Sarah Palin Failin OOOOIIIIILLLLLL Commissioner from OOOOOIIIIIILLLLLLL Millionaires Crash Every Plane McCain, Bush, Cheney, Rice and Guiliani; it appears that Sarah Palin Failin OOOOIIIIILLLLLL Commissioner, her large family, dogs, cats, chickens, and hogs can now move out of their trailer. Guiliani went from GOP front runner to anonymous polygamist. Guiliani is the biggest joke and shares home dysfunction with Bush, Cheney, Rice, Crash Every Plane McCain and now Sarah trailer Palin Failin OOOOIIIIILLLLLL Commissioner. OOOOIIIIILLLLLLL MILLIONS stolen from Our TREASURY did not help their dysfunctional families.

GOP Republican Wall Street Get Rich by robbing the American TREASURY and outsourcing American jobs party has officially been dissolved. Plane wreck McCrash and Train wreck Trailer Palin Failin OOOOIIIIILLLLLL Commissioners have destroyed the already dysfunctional GOP Republican Party of Corporate Welfare Thieves.

Democrats and Independents are the official parties. Blessings to America and the World for peaceful cooperation and the elimination of unjust wars for GOP profits. The People First Party has arrived and Rich Wall Street millionaires will no longer use the AMERICAN PEOPLE as their cattle. Americans today are all free independent Democratic People in pursuit of happiness in the spirit of cooperation.

“We joined up with an altruistic vision of promoting freedom and justice around the world,” said Vince Emanuel, a Marine lance corporal who did a tour of duty in Iraq from August 2004 to April 2005, explaining why he was marching and protesting the GOP Republican Convention.

“Except we saw the killing of innocent people and the destruction of property ... for a lot of us it was very disenfranchising."

The veterans group tried to hand a message to the campaign of GOP Republican John Crash Every Plane McCain calling for a withdrawal from Iraq, reparations for the Iraqi people, and full medical benefits for veterans. No one from John Crash Every Plane McCain’s campaign received them.

If FOX NEWS does not clean up it’s filthy RACIST acts of discrimination, then American and European audiences will B O Y C O T T FOX RACIST NEWS.

GOP Republican Wall Street SRO (Self Regulatory Organization) Robber Baron Supercapitalism Is Down And Will No Longer Rob the U.S. TREASURY and AMERICAN PEOPLE

Prerequisite for the United Stats President and Vice President is advance degrees, especially in Constitutional Law. D student McCain and hillbilly Palin Failin are excluded from the highest offices in the World. The debates will be fun: Harvard Law vs. Crash Jet and Mudville.

GOP Republican Wall Street Get Rich Quick By Robbing America TREASURY Wild Speculators Created The Enormous National Debt, So Make Them Pay For It And Balance Our Budget.
GOP Republican Wall Street Supercapitalism Speculators Have Committed Treason Against Our Country.

What has WALL STREET SUPER-CAPITALISM brought you besides:

Cluttered homes full of useless crap

Semi-illiterate teenage sons on alcohol and drugs

Semi-illiterate teenage daughters on drugs and having unwanted babies

Divorce rates off the chart

Depress people living alone and addicted church on TV or pornography

Guns deregulation freeing children to murder each other in school and after school

It is convenient for Pelosi to blame the Republicans for the failure of the bill. But the Democrats hold the majority in the House; 97 Democrats voted against the bill. If she were an adequate leader, surely she could have persuaded 13 of those Democrats to vote for the bill; it would have passed.

It is a failure of leadership. I predict it will not be long until the Democrats in Congress choose new leaders: Steny Hoyer for Speaker and Hillary Clinton for Senate Majority Leader. Pelosi and Harry ("This war is lost") Reid are jokes.

And let's not forget that it was Chris Dodd and Barney Frank who foiled the efforts of Chuck Hagel and others (including John McCain) to impose stiff regulations on Fannie and Freddie in 2005.

You people like JoePublic, who are drinking the fear mongering Kool-Aid, need to do a little research on economics and not trust people who either a) have their hand in the till or b) spent 4 years getting a journalism degree so they could parrot people without thinking.

This bill is TRULY bad. There will be no depression. We are still 2 quarters away from even a recession, since the GDP GREW last quarter. You don't reward foolish business practices by bailing out the people who made them.

You reward idiots like Bush, McCain, Obama, Frank, and Pelosi and anyone else who supports this kind of welfare by throwing them out of office because they deserve it.

If it were the Oil Companies getting a $700 BILLION bailout, I bet your tune would change. Or maybe if Peta were getting a $700 Billion bailout? Stop being partisan and use common sense.

The market will correct. It's overvalued. People will lose money and other people will make money. Guess what? THAT'S THE NATURE OF THE MARKET. It can't always go up, you nitwits.

"It's possible that a lot of members still aren't taking any of this seriously enough."

It's the American People who are not taking this seriously enough. This IS a house of cards. Without overnight bank trading everything comes to a stuttering hault. Food, gas, materials, much less luxuries. $700B is now not enough.

The only people this is good news for is the bearded men in caves. They are celebrating.

We are screwing ourselves and will only have each other to blame. Damn shame. Obama is really going to have his work cut out for him.

Bush et al will be chased out of town. I wish they could take all of their failures with them.

Geez, Pershing, you just can't wait to blame the Republicans, can you? Why exactly did Pelosi need to point blame rather than tout the positives of the bill? Your partisanship is showing, which is SOP for the Washington Post.

I agree that the Republicans are playing games with this- Boehner's going around calling the bill a "crap sandwich" and then they want to blame their no votes on a speech by Nancy Pelosi? If they really didn't vote for it because their feelings were hurt, they shouldn't be in Congress. If they, and Democrats as well, didn't vote for it because they didn't believe in the bill, they should be mature enough to say just that and take the responsibility for any fall-out.

Everyone's financial future is now at stake. When your child cannot get a student loan, when your retirement money evaporates, when your job is axed, you will see that $700 billion is a bargain to the alternative of TRILLIONS of lost GDP, social unrest, and a possible depression. Main street doesn't understand that Wall St is a leading indicator and that their fates are linked. They will only react when it hits them in the wallet. But by then, it will be too late.

Maybe, just maybe enough members of congress realized that since hedging and easy credit caused this debacle that dumping 700 billion of easy credit on paulson to start a massive hedge fund of bad paper could not possibly be a solution?

For all those who believe this was a bad bill I'm assuming you don't have 401ks or IRAs in stocks or bonds or use credit cards... Good luck with both when the credit market dries up completely. The only reason the DOW closed at ONLY 777 points down was that the vote took place so late in the afternoon, but hey, the Asian markets will take care of that by morning...

I'm going through my fantasy of leaving my live of comfort into a strange shoeless Steinbeckian vision plagued with endless dust and meager portions. I envision the birth of my next child in the back of a rusted pickup near my roadside tent dwelling somewhere along the lonliest highway in the world.

What is going to happen? In the back of my mind: God is Sovereign. If trouble is coming, I never had any control over it anyway.

Hardship is something I can imagine, but can't really get my mind around entirely. After all, I live in more comfort than a most of the monarchs in the history of the world. I'm surrounded by every kind of music I could want. The plays I watch have expertly crafted stories and actors who've trained almost their entire lives just for a chance to compete at being the best, and best of all I can see them any time of day or night. Food is so plentiful, I've never worried a day that I would go hungry, only that I'd eat too much. I have flush toilets, and refrigerated coca-cola. What king ever had that?

So is this end of my life of comfort? It depends. Some say the crash wont hit mainstreet. They say the '87 crash never touched mainstreet. Paulson's warnings sounded more grave. This is not about stock prices, this is about captital freezing up, no more money to be invested or lent.

Only time will tell. Should you start building your mad max style compound with secret vaults of gasoline? Who can know?

Folks, anyone who voted for or against this bill is up for re-election. They're House members, and they're up every 2 years. Senators, on the other hand, are up every 6. much has been made of the re-election stuff, given how unpopular this bill has been with voters. But don't be fooled into thinking that anyone--Republican or Democrat--who voted on this bill today isn't up for reelection.

The point everyone is missing is this... the bill was supposed to be a BI-PARTISAN bill. Meaning, that both parties share the BLAME for the bill. So, in the negotiations, each side promised to deliver a majority of their caucus... Democrats agreed to deliver a majority of the Democratic caucus and Republicans agreed to deliver a majority of the Republican caucus. The Democrats did their part, the Republicans did not. Sure, the bill could've been passed with more Democratic support, but the the fact is, the agreement needed to be passed by majorities of both parties. Face it, the bill is a stinker... but it is necessary. Therefore, the blame and the success of the bill must be shared upon both parties... that is what was negotiated between the 2 parties, and simply, the Republicans failed.

Yes, banks will stop lending money when it makes sense. They need to survive in order to make a profit. Lending out cash makes it easier for them to fail in the short term. In this economy, it will make sense to limit lending. It is what happened in 1929. Banks were having financial difficulties so they started hoarding cash. The government did nothing and we had a depression. If current banks do not hoard their cash, they run the risk of being shutdown by the government when their balance sheets get too dire.

This all started with the idea of making it easier to buy a home. The idea of subprime mortgages was a loser from the start. It pushed up demand and when supply finally caught up and prices because steady, it was a bubble that burst with disastrous results.

Okay, first of all. The MARKET is failing--NOT THE ECONOMY! SO, knock off the panic about that! Second of all. It isn't CREDIT that drives the market---ITS CAPITAL, STUPID!!!!! And if you look at the top investment firms spreadsheet from just the past few days-they have MADE MONEY!!!!!! Get a grip and take a Xanax! Go to bed, get some rest and remember a simple law of Physics. What goes down, eventually comes up and what goes up eventually comes down.

I don't like the need for the rescue package, but do believe that it needs to pass. The Republicans in the house were able to add some points that help the bill. I agree that it was short sighted if some Republicans changed their votes based on Pelosi's speech, but why was that necessary? In a time when the Democrats were insisting on a bi-partisan vote, how did she think that her speech would help pass the bill? She needed some sound bites for her Soros/Move On.Org crowd!!!

Govenment social engineering set this meltdown in motion - government needs to now pick up the pieces so that we can hopefully learn from this and move on!!!

If the Bailout Bill was essential, there was a phenomenal failure of a supposedly very smart and articulate group of people to communicate exactly WHY. If you are one of those condemning the "common folks on Main Street" as foolish for perceiving the Paulson Plan as nothing more than a bailout of rich investment bankers, well, and I hate to burst your bubble (what with so many breaking these days as reality intrudes into Wonderland), but that IS what it sure sounded like. The logic we were handed went like this: give us $700 billion, and we'll decide what crappy assets to take off the hands of the investment banks and other instutions who were stuck with this stuff when the music stopped and everyone realized they were impossible to value due to their complexity and eroding collateral. Then, when these same Masters of the Universe get the cash, they will wake up the next morning, well-rested and refreshed, and go out there and START LENDING AGAIN! And the happy citizenry will cry out - "Praise the Lord - I can again count on my GOD GIVEN RIGHT to run up my credit cards at 21.5% interest, with late fees and over-limit fees I'll never be able to repay, and take out adjustable rate HELOCS, and borrow for collge, fancy furniture and Chinese crap for my house, but by golly, the economy is MOVING AGAIN!" No one bothered to take the time to explain some other causal nexus between my credit card, my ATM, my bank account and toxic CDOs and CDSs. Sorry, it just wasn't there. A big MISS - apparently someone forgot about getting the buy-in of the governed, and alas, for a change we weren't too busy watching American Idol to take notice. And if your view is that, well, this is all too complicated for you mere citizens to understand, so we won't bother, and that we should trust the Bush Administration when it comes screaming "the sky is falling - do this OR ELSE," well, there again, you must be kidding. Once fooled, shame on you, twice fooled, shame on me. Credibility once shot is hard to regain - Bush has none, nor do his minions. Simply put, if it's DEAL OR ELSE, we'll take OR ELSE this time, just to see what happens first. You're right - we don't believe you. Nor do we view the right to incur debt the likes of which no honest man can ever repay as inalienable. PLease, stop the B.S. and get real.

If you want to spend $700 Billion to pump the economy then use it to replace every old bridge, repair the highways, dredge the harbors, lay a new high speed rail from coast to coast so the trains can run 90 mph all the way non stop, pave every airport, put high speed internet to every home in the country, and on, and on...

Some of this can start tomorrow with crews of men with shovels and gravel filling potholes.. There will be new paychecks being cashed at the local pharmacy 1 week from today... And the orders for concrete, steel, and machinery will start flowing out...

Injecting money with a hypodermic needle right at the root of the infection, which is no jobs and no demand for goods, will have a thousand times the impact on cash flow in this country compared to simply giving it to big finance firms...

Do this now and 90 days on Paulson will be mumbling darkly about inflation and an overheated economy and irrational exuberance...

Let me suggest one more reason why the rescue/bailout bill failed (at least this week). It may sound bizarre, but this failure of the parties to work together is a direct result of Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade begat Borking, which begat Clarence Thomas, which begat the impeachment of Clinton which begat the polarization of the the elections of 2000 and 2004 which begat the inability of the parties to work together in the national interest at a time of crisis. Think about it.

Where are the journalists who will call to account the likes of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Meeks and Maxine Waters among others who are on video as saying there was no problem at all with Fannie or Freddie?? They had the gall to attack the regulator who was warning them of the impending crisis! Incredible!! Frank and Dodd are like FOXES put into the coop to care for the chickens, charged to craft a solution. That is thorougly insane! Americans aren't stupid. The Democrat socialists giving free rides through housing loans with no lending criteria are to blame for this crisis. Not Wall Street, Not President Bush, Not Banks, but Democrat legislators who refused to see the problems coming, and who in fact perpetuated the mess. When do we hear some calls for a BIG investigation of Pelosi, Frank, Dodd and their criminal colleagues who foisted this nonsense on the American public?? They should be run out of office on a rail on November 4 but their liberal districts will no doubt return them to Washington to plague us all for another two years! It is astounding that the naive voters think Democrats are better for the economy ... they are only better at knowing how to ruin it completely.

Shame on the pitiful journalism that doesn't even remotely call these clowns to task for this outrageous disaster that Congress itself has caused with terribly faulty legislation! They are the culprits!

How about a little truth in reporting?? We have seen NOTHING of the truth in the mainstream media.

This is sad on both sides. People need to understand that we are all connected in this economy. What happens on "Wall Sreet" affects everybody. To say "just let bad businesses fail" is shortsighted and cruel, and you are only hurting yourself. If banks and companies fail, that means people are losing their jobs, credit, home values, etc. An economic slow down means a lot of pain for a lot of people. This bill might not have been the best, but lets see how you feel when you're unemployed, or the value of the dollar sinks, and other countries switch to the Euro, and the cost of all the goods you buy at WalMart imported from China go up, and basically the economy grinds to a halt. Given the makeup of our government right now, if we are going to deal with this problem, nobody is going to get everything they want. People need to suck it up and be responsible.

Little:He said we had to do it
he said we had to do it
he said we had to do it
he said we had to do it
he said we had to do it !!!!!!
Interviewer:What are you trying to say Little?
Little:It doesnt matter now.... now all we can do is sing the death song!!!!
Interviewer:How does it go?
Little:
Yes George Bush loves me
yes George Bush loves me
yes George Bush loves me
Dick Cheney tells me so.
Interviewer:Catchy . Little, really catchy!
Interviewer, thats al we have time for today, tomorrow we interview John Boy to see how many people said good night to him today. Everyone have a nice Run on the bank

I suspect that many Americans are not-so-secretly thrilled that this bill failed to pass. It is the equivalent of a parent giving his irresponsible son the keys to a new Corvette when he wrecked his other Corvette. And this act would have been considered "punishment"??

Nobody believes it'll be the only asset acquisition bill. There'll be more to follow as 2 million foreclosures are expected next year and more after that. They're intentionally underestimating the cost of the bailout in order to get the government entrenched in buying up assets. Once we go down this path, there's no turning back because the market values have been completely distorted.

perhaps we need to learn to live without growth for the sake of growth. this no vote doesn't mean much at this time because I'm sure they will attempt another way to ramrod it through. things that are truly important will still git r done.

Thank God, Lousy bill.
What to do:
1. Fire the 17% approval congress headed by Reid the Ridiclous and Nancy the Name Caller.
2. Erase the Mark to Market rule.
3. Close Acron and enforce a 20% Down payment rule with full docs required.
4. Offer poor people a "rent with a option to buy" when they have paid enought rent to provide a 20% credit to down payment value whent property was first rented.
5. Only allow Freddie and Fannie to buy conforming, full doc loans that are "Owner Occupied" with 20% down.
6.Expand the Mortgage system to "Insure" loans the do fail my providing free "Mortgage Insurance" monthly payment assistance, to the occuping owners of such homes that fail in the next 36 months and that were bought in the past 36 months..

Obama has already taken full responsibility for the bailouts success or now failure. He also pointed out smugly that McCain had little if any involvement. Great job leading!!!!!
Posted by: Charles | September 29, 2008 4:54 PM

The House GOP that foisted deregulation on people are the same ones that voted against their President's bailout bill. Who cares, they will all go down, including McCain, with the ship. The survivors from the wreck of the Titanic will be Democrats.

I can not believe that some people are saying let the markets crash just to uphold some conservative principles about free markets and against "socialism." what do they think was done during the 1930's and the great depression: government Intervention. what this catastrophe points out is that you cannot completely trust a free market system because any system fueled by greed will eventually collapse under its own weight. Also, Eric Cantor from Virginia is an idiot, Chris Mathews of MSNBC showed that about two weeks ago when interviewing him and Cantor was trying to run away from the record of Bush and the Republican party, as if he is some independent or something.

770 points lost today is just the beginning. Did any of those not willing to spend $700 million or less calculate how much the American people lost today alone? We are talking about 5-7% of nearly 20 trillion! Just for the retirement funds! And that's not counting what's still to come, and the impact on the economy as such.
This issue is NOT just helping a few banks with bailouts, this bill was about protecting the markets from collaps.
Politicians incapable of making tough decissions, and support an unpopular yet necessary measure should be called rightly cowards.

McCain and Boehner join with Bush & Cheney, proving that not one of them could lead a two-car parade. All of them would rather indulge the wingnuts of their party than to take a stand for their country.

It is amazing how many people can fix this financial mess - hopefully there is a Congressperson out there, somewhere, reading these various comments, and taking notes - lots of emotion, whether justified or not. One of the few days I've felt good being a conservative spender (smaller home and car than most I know).

The bail-out was a hand-out, pure and simple. Read what the economists are saying. "Cash for trash" is the most polite they get. The members of the House that weren't taking matters seriously enough were the ones that voted "yes."

Some folks are highlighting the Republicans who voted against. But how about the 94 Democrats who didn't get on board?

It was really an unusually bipartisan approach; the bill was defeated by Democrats and Republicans equally. Should we be upset about that? If they're listening to their constituents and the constituents are wrong (meaning the economy really does tank), then how does this end up?

The S&L crisis which polluted some of both parties stalwarts (AKA the Keating Five) and "necessitated" the formation of the Resolution Trust Corporation cost the taxpayers of this country nearly 125B according to the corporation's 1994 and 1995 financial statements from the United States General and Accounting Office. I don't know about you, but, when I make a poor business decision I suffer the consequences and learn from my mistakes. What makes big finance so different from me? Can we really afford a 700B dollar bailout? More correctly, can our children afford it? The entire fiasco is tantamount to taxation without representation and the American public should be outraged. Thomas Paine wrote during another particularly harrowing moment in American history with another Washington in full retreat,"These are the times that try men's souls...'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country...Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt...But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered..." America, welcome to being responsible for your own actions, independent thought, and an end to deconstructive partisan politics. Here is my advice: Be wary of the experts and respectfully question authority because I think we're all being hoodwinked.

I realize that inadvertently, I might lose my job because of the decision to turn this package down. My family might be in dire straits. I might lose all the money I've invested in stocks over the past year. But you know what... oddly, I am 100% pleased with what happened today. For once I think America did what was right. I hate that no one ever fails in this country. We bail people out or sue when things don't go our way. I might be starving on the streets soon with my family, but at least I will be a proud american again for the first time in a long long time.

The idea behind the bailout is to soften the blow, stretch things out, and make it a soft landing instead of a total crash. Despite the dire warnings on either side of the bailout issue, no one really knows if it will work. What has to be done is implementing sensible regulations, and ending the philosophy of free market anarchy that has been push heavily by republicans, but also supported by many democrats like the Clintons. No more free trade, no more anti-regulation market anarchy. That has been proven a total failure.

Let the market correct itself ... it will take time, but it can be done. The American people are speaking out and letting the congress know that they do not want to bailout Wall street. They are not buying into the gloom and doom sayers. Pushing through a rushed bailout package just puts the burden of the financial crisis on the people. There needs to be an extensive investigation to determine how we got into this mess, before we throw good money after bad. There needs to accountability ... right now it appears that the President and the Democratic congress wants to get this problem out of the public's view so the truth will not be known.

I find it amazing how proud people are that the bill was defeated. The Bill was not about bailing out Wall Street it was about saving your jobs, homes and retirement.

Personally, I am fairly well set. I own my home outright, I pulled out of the stock market altogether, have no debt and I have enough cash to live for a few years. Especially if we slip into a depression, things get cheap.

But if you live paycheck to paycheck, pay rent or have a mortgage, have any debt have your retirement or saving in the stock market, mutual funds, 401k, pension plan, then you have to worry. This is not so much about Wall Street as it is about the Credit market.

Without a fluid credit market and the availability of loans to businesses the economy will freeze up, payrolls will not be met and jobs will be lost. And with savings ravaged by the market people will eventually become homeless. Even credit-worthy McDonalds was rejected for a loan. Not because they are a bad risk but because the banks are just not lending.

If you do not beleive me just ask the CEO, CFO, Accountant of your company if they can survive without loans.

The fact of the matter is working and middle class people will bear the brunt of the repercussions of what happened today, yes a few rich people who did not see this day coming will take a bath. But smart rich people have been in the sidelines for a while. They own their homes and cars, they have cash reserves and they are the ones who will make out like bandits...

Honestly the more I think about it the better this vote looks for me personally. Ironically it is those who are happiest about todays defeat that will be hurt most and they do not even know it... Kinda sad.

In light of today's events. This McCain support would vote for Obama if he promised to fire Nancy Pelosi. I know that he can not actually do that but the dems leader showed a lack of leadership in her speech today. Sad day for Uncle Sam.

The Dems did not need a single vote from the Repubs to pass this bill. The Speaker could not sell this swindle to her own party and now she blames the Repubs? I don't think credit for those who are worthy is a problem......Welfare credit is what is falling by the wayside. The Obama giveaway has failed...Deal with it!

It all comes down to trust. The Republicans are not going to vote for a bill if they don't trust the majority Democrat's motives.

I doubt that any of the members has had time to thoroughly read the language of this bill and fully appreciate the significance of all of the language included. There is an element of trust...the minority party has to trust the majority's leadership that they will not be taken advantage of.

I believe that Speaker Pelosi was wrong to launch into partisan attacks when a major bill of this kind is under consideration and when bi-partisan support is supposedly being sought. When the Speaker made these verbal attacks and emphasized partisan politics, she gave the Republicans a reason not to trust her.

It is no wonder that America is in trouble, we can't even have civil discussions without resorting to name calling and finger pointing. While I do not like the idea of a bailout, I also do not like the idea of credit shortage, etc... I think they attempted to create a bill that was less difficult to swallow and that provided some provisions for tax payers. Of course, I hope it will not be these same tax payers screaming when and if everything tanks. At that point I will not listen to "why didn't you do something to save us." I do not like golden parachutes for CEOs who leave companies in turmoil, I do not like that we allowed deregulation to be the rule and no one was watching out for us. At least this bill addressed these issues. Instead, we spend time on this blog critizing people, making fun of dems and republicans, screaming about Nancy Pelosi, and for some strange reason bringing in the immigration issue and talking about jews. Seriously, what happened to reasonable discourse. This makes me fear the upcoming election and the future of this country. Have we really become an "American Idol" of public discourse where criticism is the only way we can get our point across.

Something has to be done, but trying to blame Bush for this is just plain wrong. Pelosli pulled a bone headed move. Look at this, it's painful to think hypocritical the Democrats are in congress with their own actions largely to blame for this mess. Rep. Frank is featured in this video from 2004 when there were attempts to reform Fannie and Freddie by Republicans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

Where are the journalists who will call to account the likes of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Meeks and Maxine Waters among others who are on video as saying there was no problem at all with Fannie or Freddie?? They had the gall to attack the regulator who was warning them of the impending crisis! Incredible!! Frank and Dodd are like FOXES put into the coop to care for the chickens, charged to craft a solution. That is thorougly insane! Americans aren't stupid. The Democrat socialists giving free rides through housing loans with no lending criteria are to blame for this crisis. Not Wall Street, Not President Bush, Not Banks, but Democrat legislators who refused to see the problems coming, and who in fact perpetuated the mess. When do we hear some calls for a BIG investigation of Pelosi, Frank, Dodd and their criminal colleagues who foisted this nonsense on the American public?? They should be run out of office on a rail on November 4 but their liberal districts will no doubt return them to Washington to plague us all for another two years! It is astounding that the naive voters think Democrats are better for the economy ... they are only better at knowing how to ruin it completely.

Shame on the pitiful journalism that doesn't even remotely call these clowns to task for this outrageous disaster that Congress itself has caused with terribly faulty legislation! They are the culprits!

How about a little truth in reporting?? We have seen NOTHING of the truth in the mainstream media.

The Republicans saw their chance to shower blame on the Democrats right before the election, and they took it. The idea that Pelosi's speech did anything to affect anyone's vote is laughable--no one listens to speeches in the house--they're all on their cellphones talking to lobbyists or their girlfriends. That was all posturing, folks, see though it.

The Dems were dumb enough to walk into the trap of supporting a huge spending bill pushed by Bush. Republicans are worried about a Dem landslide in November, and this was their effort to avoid that, pure and simple. Now they'll tweak the bill a little more, get some pork in there for their own districts and their own buddies, add another "concession" or two, and pass it, declaring that they courageously stood up to the Democrat's irresponsible spending plan.

I am extremely happy with congress today despite the failure of my bank and what that may mean for my savings. I will continue to live within my means and everyone else who deserves to fall goes crashing down. Hopefully savings will partially recover within 2-3 years.

WTG, Obama "phoning in" to rally your party and get that bill passed. McCain actually swayed more Republicans to get on board than origianlly were. While Pelosi and Obama LOST votes. Great gravy, the democrats have a majority and could have voted it through without any help from the republicans and yet the lame dems like Pelosi and Obama still couldn't get anything done.

The democratic congress is responsible for the housing/lending mess in the first place. This democrat congress is the WORST.

With this bill failing and Obama running around this last weekend taking credit for it (and saying McCain could take none), what will be the public response? How will this be reported in the media? How will the campaigns spin it?

If we don't do something about this, US realestate will become undervalued, Americans won't have the ready cash to snap up the great deals so they will get snapped up by a foreign power, probably China. Consider China's position on the geo-political gameboard. They are holding $1 Trillion in US dollars, looking for a place to put it before inflation sets in.

The Democrats want to push the lie that Bush's deregulation (such as what?) caused the problem of the housing bubble, when it's public record that Bush, McCain and other Republicans tried repeatedly to regulate Fannie and Freddie and warned of the reckless lending they were facilitating. Obama, Dodd, Frank and the Congressional Black Caucus angrily denied there was any problem and BLOCKED effective regulation. They can't lie their way out of this.

Judging by the comments here, people still don't get what the bill was about.
So, the salesmanship argument made above, is probably the biggest reason for the failure.

Very simply, the bill would have helped the credit market. By killing the bill, the credit markets will run dry. People won't be able to get mortgages, people & businesses won't be able to borrow... everything is going to stop.

The GOP, as usual, has put the Party over the Country... and refused to accept any responsibility for the current mess.
They're actually pushing for more of the same, that actually had a large part in creating this mess. It's getting to the point, that if you vote for the GOP, you're voting against America. That's how far the GOP has sunk.

People really think this is about wall street. To bad your little minds dont understand the magnitude of this. They think its going to be fine... Just wait when your company lays you off, just wait when SS dries up, just wait when the Gov. stops paying medicaid, just wait when you cant pay your mortgage, you will blame somebody else but it will be you to blame... This is RED MONDAY and we can thank repulicans for acting like children for this final demise of the economy.. down from here fella's at least for a long time.........

If I gotta save half my lifetime to buy a new car instead of buying it today with credit.... SO BE IT!

Nobody is discussing the upside here...
Detroit can now dump all current vehicles and completely retool for a new market. We can't buy cars now anyway, so why not stop making the crap they have been making, and make cars that we really want - THAT GET 40+ mpg!

There will be a larger emphasis on saving than there ever was before (spanning the last 3 decades, I mean... our parents knew how to save).

All the hocus-pocus company accounting that has carried on for the past 2 decades will (hopefully) come to an end, en masse (again, hopefully).

The credit-driven society will become (once again) the asset driven society. Of course, we may be forced to buy our properties back from foreign countries that have the money to buy up our country now, but we'll have the assets to do it!

COME ON, AMERICA! LET'S GET FIRED UP AND TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!

Down with huge mega-entities buying up our businesses and firing everybody in sight!

Down with corporate yahoos hired from outside the company that don't care about the years people have invested in a business and run it into the ground with their fenagled credit-swapping/revolving/spookifying!

I may not sound like a Republican right now, but I say let the house of cards fall, so we can build a house of bricks!

Where is the accountability for members of Congress who let this happen in the first place?

Hearings by regulators in 2004 on Capitol Hill went to deaf ears, including people like Barney Frank who wrote this legislation. WISE UP CAPITOL HILL!! NO MORE MORTGAGES TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T DESERVE THEM!!

I support the vote completely. We should not bail these organization out. Let the Market address the issue. I am willing to take the pain in my future investments to keep from moving this country down a path of socialism. I pay my mortgage and loans on time. I do not buy more house than We can afford. Banks offered to lend us twice what we borrowed to buy a house 3 years ago and My wife and I said no.
Personal responsibilty needs to be paramount and the act of bailing out the bad behavior does not promote that. What happens when we do this and people continue to act in the same manner. What then?

Why would the country believe Barney Frank (D-Mass) when he was one of the strongest supporters of Fannie and Freddy, and was supporting more loans for marginal buyers. He is an idiot. I am proud of congress actually representing the voters for once.

I don't want to bail anybody out either. But you remember those TV commercials we watched when we were kids? The ones where the guy says, "We'll pass those savings on to YOU." They never did pass savings on to US, but they DID pass the COST on to us, and that's exactly what's going to happen this time. Without a bailout, Wall Street firms will make Americans pay, only it will be average taxpayers with 401(k)s who will pay the highest "proportion" of the cost, CEOs will still get filthy rich and there will be NO oversight. With a government bailout, the cost will be spread out fairly evenly among everybody -- and there will be oversight.

I don't want to bail anybody out either. But you remember those TV commercials we watched when we were kids? The ones where the guy says, "We'll pass those savings on to YOU." They never did pass savings on to US, but they DID pass the COST on to us, and that's exactly what's going to happen this time. Without a bailout, Wall Street firms will make Americans pay, only it will be average taxpayers with 401(k)s who will pay the highest "proportion" of the cost, CEOs will still get filthy rich and there will be NO oversight. With a government bailout, the cost will be spread out fairly evenly among everybody -- and there will be oversight.

Ben, we're smarter than that. Bad business needs to fail, and for that matter most of American's business is small business and the individual. If big corporations can't get credit for their day to day operations then they can just flop over and die as is the moral thing for them to do. You're just being a shill for banking cartels and megacorps, probably because that's where your interests and investments are. Guess what, I can create real wealth with my hands and mind, unlike parasites who can only create pyramid schemes of increased debt and meaningless paper wealth backed by nothing. I resent the suggestion I be saddled with their mistakes. And it's nonsense to speak of the assets purchased by government as returning money later, when overpriced home values are going to continue to fall, companies will continue to fail, and we go into recession. Let the stock market fall 20%, it's overpriced b.s. anyway. A huge correction is just what the doctor ordered and just what the USA needs.

Interesting that Republicans in congress rebuked their own president in rejecting this bill. These same Republican congressmen approved virtually everything that this horrible administration has done over the past eight years.

It is obvious that Republicans jumped ship and abandoned the country when they should have pitched in and helped to bring this bill to a successful conclusion. It could have been done, but the Dems simply couldn't do it alone.

The Republicans have ruined this country and I hope some of their constituents will wake up and help us to elect a government that will save us.

THIS IS A BAILOUT OF GLOBALISM.
The global aristocracy has screwed up and now they arrogantly want the commoners to pay for their mistakes. By sending American jobs overseas and running a large trade deficit they generate massive counter-flows of dollars from Asia and Germany. This money is sent to the US to fund more credit card debt, bad mortgages and car loans so people will buy more Japanese and German cars.

The only problem is that the commoners will not pay the tab for a system that has undermined their interests. Now the elites are desperate and begging.

“This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
FDR’s First Inaugural Address March 4, 1933
I am sick of the Democrats in Congress allowing this administration and these Republicans tie our resources up in their failed financial policies before they are kicked out of office. Their strategy is quite clear and I do not understand why you do absolutely nothing to stop these orchestrated moves on the basis of fear. This revised bailout bill is simply an expanded proposal of exactly the same bill they started with the only difference being is that their first taxpayer money giveaway is $250 billion. You are still allowing NO GUARANTEED RELIEF through the bankruptcy courts for HOMEOWNERS, while allowing the very same republican government operatives and Wall Street to their own devices in dealing with homeowner’s woes when we already know that they will attempt to bleed these struggling families dry. When are the Democrats in Congress going to get any real backbone and stop these railroading, fear mongering Wall Street republicans. The AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE FEED UP TO NO END!!! This bill is the same ABSURD BAILOUT with homeowner language all over it, but with ABSOLUTELY NO PROTECTIONS OR PROVISIONS TO DEFINITELY USE OUR GOVERNMENT TAX DOLLARS TO HELP HARDWORKING FAMILIES IN THIS COUNTRY. I strongly urge you and all congressmen the least bit concern with these homeowners and their families to VOTE NO ON THIS BILL, take it back to the people for a complete, substantial, fair and thorough hearing at a later day and time. In fact, I believe that the republicans orchestrated the tight money by severely increasing the cash reserves on the bank to make it appear that these banks are about to fail to put you and the people in a panic mode (AS HAS BEEN THEIR USUAL TACTIC) to shove big money bills down our throats. SLOW THIS ROLL AND TAKE THIS BS BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD. You have the greatest conflict of interest with Paulson going to government to specifically BAILOUT HIS OWN FAILED INSTITUTION that has paid him $39 million from his company's coffers, now you allow HIM TO BRING IN HIS OWN WALL STREET BUDDIES AND BAILOUT ALL OF THEM OUT. Even any proposed OVERSIGHT BOARD undoubtedly will contain more of his buddies with huge conflicts of interest so there will be no REAL OVERSIGHT OF ANYTHING PAULSON DOES which is why he and his republican operatives agreed to it. Why can't we wait until a completely new administration is elected to deal with these substantial changes in our regulatory policy that MUST BE ESTABLISHED IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT ANY REAL CHANGES IN THIS FINANCIAL CONTROLLED ECONOMY because we (and I can assure you ) that this cash giveaway will not solve any problems, just put more cash into the hands of RICH SPECULATORS ON WALL STREET AND WE WILL STILL BE FACED WITH EVEN GREATER PROBLEMS BECAUSE there are a huge foreclosures due to come over the next year that this BILL DOES NOTHING TO ADDRESS. IT IS STILL A GUARANTEED WALL STREET GIVEAWAY, WITH NOTHING FOR HOMEOWNERS. GREAT THAT SOME OF THE REPS UNDERSTAND THAT WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH GIVEAWAYS OF OUR U.S. TREASURY DOLLARS TO THE WEALTHY!!!WE now need to vote out everyone who voted for this WALL STREET GIVEAWAY orchestrated by this failed administration letting the market take care of itself. Now that same administration wants us to giveaway billions still, ASOLUTELY NO, NO NO!!!!

"John McCain (perhaps seeking to avoid his own share of the blame) joined in. Economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said:

"From the minute John McCain suspended his campaign and arrived in Washington to address this crisis, he was attacked by the Democratic leadership: Senators Obama and Reid, Speaker Pelosi and others. Their partisan attacks were an effort to gain political advantage during a national economic crisis. By doing so, they put at risk the homes, livelihoods and savings of millions of American families.

"Barack Obama failed to lead, phoned it in, attacked John McCain, and refused to even say if he supported the final bill.

"Just before the vote, when the outcome was still in doubt, Speaker Pelosi gave a strongly worded partisan speech and poisoned the outcome."

At least common sense prevailed for the moment. The $10,000,000,000,000 debt (Gads I sure am getting tired of typing all those zeros) stays at $10,000,000,000,000 in a temporary defeat for BigBrotherBush and his plans to drive the country farther into bankruptcy so he can flee to South America in safety. I suspect that Rove will be orchestrating a new national calamity tomorrow as this one did not pan out quite as expected.

"What can we say about Obama's oratory skills that hasn't already been said? He is one of those unique characters who knows how to tap into the collective psyche and put them under his spell. He is the closest thing to a Pied Piper we've seen in the last half century. Whatever one thinks of his politics, his speeches are a welcome reprieve from the simian blabbering of President Dimwit."

I think whoever wrote that needs to review exactly what transpired in the story about the Pied Piper of Hamelin!

How about a big Mediation co. That will oversee the buy back transactions and that this company is paid by Wall street with a Tax to the trade lets say 0.25% per transaction. And this Mediation Co. goes with the rules of the market and their rulings are final, so instead of having people negotiate with their banks and FHA to get a deal, we force banks to take a deal that makes sense why the taxpayers are going to buy something that we dont know how much is worth and worse why would we allow the same companies that failed to make up if after 5 years they come out short they will say then "ohh we are broke" how naive of Mrs. pelosi to think that is a good thing in the law.
So we put up the money to make this mediation Co.

"it's a great victory if you don't want a mortgage, or a car loan or a credit card or a healthy economy. Dissenters just cut off their nose to spite their face. As the recession deepens I hope those so called leaders can live with themselves."

Yes it is a great victory. Maybe now only people that can actually afford it can get a mortgage, car loan or a credit card. These are not entitlements. How about renting, buying a beater, and using cash. Been there, done that and am better for it.

Quoting Barney Frank is a joke.
He and Chris Dodd are in the middle of this meltdown and the Dems push them in our face. And papers like the Wash Post give them cover too!!
So blame Bush, blame the Republicans.
Ruining the country for the Democrates is what this all about. Power grab anyone?
It is uncanny to me that everything Barney Frank slobbers out is always the opposite of the truth.
Karl / NK RI

Anyone who understands the rationality of campaigns and elections and party politics in the United States could see the failure to act coming a mile away. Heck, even our pop culture media has been teaching these lessons for years now (see the book "Homer Simpson Goes to Washington: American Politics through Popular Culture). We must move beyond partisan positioning and into an America where the common good outweighs personal campaign goals. I guess this is what George Washington's farewell address was warning us about.

I think it is tragically ironic that the same two nasty things that brought Wall Street crashing down are the same two nasty things that keep Congress from ever being able to work together for a solution that benefits the American people: pride and greed.

Shame on Pelosi and the Republicans or Democrats who try to point the finger. This is not President Bush's fault, it's the fault of greedy people wanting one thing: MORE, MORE, MORE.

It's easy to "stick it to Wall Street" when it's financial institutions collapsing and not the businesses everyone against the bailout work for. Unfortunately, lack of available credit will quickly effect everyone's abilities to get home, car, and small business loans. Enjoy the victory, and if it turns out to be permanent, I hope idealism and a sense of justice pay the bills of you, your families, and your communities. Oh, and don't forget, if you work for a growing business, part of payroll is probably paid with short term lines of credit... may want to ask your employer if that includes your job.

Good that such a flawed bill failed and both parties contributed to the failure. Barney Frank & Pelosi are two of the worst politicians in the country---not that it matters, and GWB isn't so hot either. Boehner was right that the bill was a 'crap sandwich.'

The Dems have ruined the mortgage market with their FanFred fantasies and they used FF for their own personal ATM. Raines & Gorelick and Johnson should be prosecuted for malfeasance.

Okay, first of all. The MARKET is failing--NOT THE ECONOMY! SO, knock off the panic about that! Second of all. It isn't CREDIT that drives the market---ITS CAPITAL, STUPID!!!!! And if you look at the top investment firms spreadsheet from just the past few days-they have MADE MONEY!!!!!! Get a grip and take a Xanax! Go to bed, get some rest and remember a simple law of Physics. What goes down, eventually comes up and what goes up eventually comes down.
**************************************
The market is NOT failing. The market is doing exactly what markets do to shake excess and bad stuff out of the system. The immediate future may be painful, but this country WILL get through it. We have survived so much worse: The Civil War; The Great Depression; WW2.

I can't wait to see what public opinion looks like in a week when no one can get a car loan, housing prices plumett, and your 401K is cut in half. WILL BE HILARIOUS. Here's for more DEREGULATION. VOTE MCCAIN FOR DEREGULATION!:)

injecting partisan rhetoric into this mess is a waste of time by both sides of the aisle. where are the adults in this situation? anyone pointing fingers at the "other" party hasn't taken the time to realize that they have 5hit all over themselves too. dummy up and fix the problem, a55holes.

I'm glad it failed. A correction is way overdue and things are going to be bad. Very bad. But delaying it will only make it worse. I worked my way up from poverty once, I can do it again. Even easier this time since I wont' have so far to climb.

But, the think that has me most concerned is whether the sheeple are going to buy into the Demo's statements that it is the Republican's fault that there weren't enough votes..... ????? 95 Demos voted against it!!!! How can Pelosi blame the Rebublicans for not supporting it?

"If it take socialism to save the economy, then let it fail.
Give me liberty (capitalism) or let it fail!"

As if there isn't some middle ground in which there are logical regulations that push competitive market models which ultimately provide the best product at the lowest price. Its not freedom you asking for, its anarchy. Unrestricted capitalism only works in a naturally perfectly competitive market with no cost externalization.

I guess it takes an actual depression to convince some people that we are in a difficult situation. Well, you may just get your wish.

The problem here as summarized by one economist is that "you can punish wall street for this, or you can save the economy --- but you can't do both simultaneously."

I hope all those people who chimed in about punishing Wall St. enjoy what they have wrought. You'll probably scream and blame everyone else in the world when your job disappears. Good luck -- you'll need it.

The neocons and the "unregulated free market solves everything" people own this one. Now you will too for telling your congressman to vote it down.

One fact that stood out in the voting was the NY Congressmen. Counting both Democrats and Republicans, 25/29 NY Congressmen voted Yes. It looks like the deal was good for NY, maybe not as good for everyone else.

Are people really this naive to believe this bill is just a bailout of Wall Street?

Are the same people against this that will be losing their jobs as bank tellers, janitors, etc? These are the same people that have jobs because of wall street. Everyone suffers if this bill isn't passed from the top down.

The politics needs to end in the "straight talk" and "change you can believe in" needs to start. The economy and market will be crippled without tihs bill. Everyone is affected by it. No one wants this bill, but it really is last resort.

The Repubs ,, acting out Herr Rove's OCTOBER SURPRISE suddenly went from a FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND ECONOMY to CRISIS ON WALL STREET eleven days ago! Give us $700,000,000,000, no questions asked,,NOW! BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN IF YOU DELAY!!

Meanwhile the plan was to get the Democrats to vote it over the REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE's nay vote. Then Karl Rove's thugs could say the Democrats are SOCIALIZING the country.

Tagged out by PELOSI!...GOD WORK NANCY,,up yours ROVE!!!
Anyone that comes with a BS post about COUNTRY BEFORE POLITICS should ask for Rove's eradication first!!!

It's natural selection at work in our financial institutions. Let the bad businesses die so that better ones can replace them. This is sort of like the Hindenburg, puffed up with air that can catch fire, and it does so in spectacular fashion to the horror of many.

Well, that won't happen because a bailout will pass, just not as quickly as expected. Hopefully not too many people in the failed businesses make money off the deal. But you know some will.

Someone suggested that the only economic result if nothing gets done is that a bunch of rich poeple would become poor. Obviously he's not an Econ major.

Well Mr. Marx, what actually ends up happening is that banks start fail. That includes YOUR local bank. And you don't get your Federally Insured Deposits in 3 business days, it takes a lot of time. In an effort to salvage themselves banks start calling loans. Your average Joe Paycheck can't pony up the full amount of his mortgage, so he goes into foreclosure.

Legislature to preserve the homestead, will only put additional pressure on banks who will call credit card debt (anyone recall the recent legislature that removes credit card debt from bankruptcy protection?) and corporate notes in earnest. Think that would be self-defeating? Look at what happened in the corporate real estate crash of the late 80s and early 90s.

In an effort to maintain themselves as a going concern, business will begin engaging in drastic belt tightening. Labour costs are the largest source of immediate cost savings, so layoffs start in earnest. This is all before we factor in the global impact of so much of our debt backed by the "full faith and credit of the US Govt." being dumped on the market.

The first necks on the chopping block are never the rich people. It's the low paid unskilled workers with the middle management classes hard on their heels who bear the full impact.

Rich people can weather the storm. It's the people living paycheck to paycheck that will be decimated by this failure.

Think about an alternative.
Suspend "Mark to Market" accounting and allow mortgage assets to be fairly valued.

(I can't buy a foreclosed house at 2.5 cents on the dollar, so why could that valuation be assigned to the associated mortgage?)

Allow troubled borrowers to qualify for a 6% 30 year fixed mortgage. I'll buy 6% paper backed by real property, and I'm sure other investors will, too. Make sure they don't exceed 30% of their income on the mortgage payment. If the borrower can only pay 1200 a month on the mortgage, a 30 year fixed at 6% will support 200K in debt. If they owe more than that - the FNMA will hold a 6% note for the balance.
The FNMA note MUST be satisfied to sell the property.

This stops distressed sales. Which helps stabilize property values.

The decline in foreclosures will increase mortgage backed security valuation.

I don't think we should bail out Wall Street and I'm a Democrat. We need to bail out main street first. Let main street re-negotiate the mortgages, demand strict oversight and reasonable regulations. Only inject enough money into the markets to stablize until people can re-negotiate their mortgages and deal with the bankruptcy issue. I don't think anyone in Congress would risk not voting for a Main street bail out unless they didn't want to be re-elected.

Fine guys. Keep on blaming each other and blaming the banks and blaming whoever and watch unemployment hit 50%. The market dropped 777 points today, happy? Happy that there are few more hundred thousand people who had their retirement savings slammed again? Happy for all of that. Yes, the bill didn't deal out the punishment that many on Wall Street no doubt deserve, but damn it don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

And all this talk about giving money to people to make the mortgages. Fine, how would you do that? How are you going to figure out on a case by case by case basis which homeowners to help? How are you going to do that with some of these mortgages having as many as 1600 owners? And how are you going to do that in a timely way to keep money flowing to the businesses who need their short term credit lines? How are you going to get financial institutions to get money flowing again as long as they are holding mortgage backed paper that they valuate?

This will be seen later as 1929 again, only now we have 228 Little Hoovers. In 1929 we just had one.

Ninety-five Democrats voted to kill this bill. There would probably have been enough Republican votes to pass it anyway if Pelosi hadn't made a despicably partisan and dishonest attempt to blame Bush and the Republicans for the housing bubble. I think she sabotaged it on purpose for political reasons, knowing the press would surely blame her enemies, never her or her party -- the ones who protected Freddie and Fannie's reckless lending and criminal accounting pratices..

i am not even close to rich.. i finally found a company where i got good stock options and they are just vesting as im trying to get a plan for retirement in order. in just a few days, i have lost everything i've ever worked for.

This Dem is firmly on the side of the Republican majority on this one. This bill was wrong on every relevant principal. Only a communist government wants to own business concerns...and failing ones at that. Transferring bad debt to the taxpayers can only be seen as the final masterful sleight of hand in the shell game that Wall Street has made of the debt trade.

On top of which this administration has already cried wolf and demanded extraordinary powers before, and we'll be paying for its resulting blunders for years to come.

The failure of this bill just restored a tiny bit of my faith in government. I only regret that its defeat was not more deliberate.

I work for a bank and know the pressure that the feds put on us to make loans to bad credit risks - thanks the the Community Reinvestment Act. And similar pressures from groups like Obama's favorite ACORN, who said we were racists for not lending money to people with no jobs and no assets. You can thank the Democrats for the subprime mess -- it was their grand scheme to encourage home ownership regardless of creditworthiness.

I want the smart Wall Street people to figure out how they can get us out of this credit crunch without RAIDING the TREASURY COOKIE JAR!

Let’s all stare into the Abyss together!!!!!!!!! Then, we should demand the President and the Congress to use the $700 billions to RESCUE the economy from the BOTTOM UP by creating many Economics Stimulus Plans INSTEAD!

$700 Billions can create millions of American jobs and help Americans to buy back their foreclosed homes and making those bad loans into good loans.

No BAILOUT MONEY – IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW THEY TRY TO PACKAGE IT AND REPACKAGE IT – NO means NO!

For everyone who thinks this was a great for the country, please understand that this is going to have serious ramifications. I recommend that you go look at your 401(k) today! The market lost more than $1 TRILLION today, that is $300 billion more than what we going to plug into the market.

One after another, Democrats rose to speak about the failure of the Bush-McCain ideology that advocates free people and free markets. However, this is a failure of government intervention into free markets.

In 1993-97, Clinton forced banks to step up lending to borrowers they would not have loaned to otherwise. Under Clinton, sub-prime loans increased five-fold, from $200 billion to over $1 trillion, and that “toxic paper” has finally come home to roost.

Priority One – Dodd & Frank must resign immediately.

America is against this bill because it does not stop the underlying problem nor does it hold anyone accountable. This is a crisis of confidence, not resources.

House Republicans: "We were going to sign. We were. We had dipped our quills in the very ink. However, it was then that John Witherspoon made a rude noise, directed at our very standing area. Therefore, we refused to sign."

The Gettysburg Address:

Lincoln: "Four score and seven years ago...Why are you looking at me like that? No, I mean like that. Don't look at me like that. I refuse to continue."

D-Day:

General Eisenhower: "Men...off the carrier and to the shore! No...No...I said it nicely. I was just trying to be enthusiastic. No, I didn't mean that you wouldn't get off the carrier. No, that's the usual tone of my voice.

Man's Landing on The Moon
:
Neil Armstrong: "That's one small step for man, one giant...What, Buzz? No, I'm not trying to imply anything. No, I've never even thought about that. Yes, we all have the same size suits. No. Size 9. Yes, double E."

This is like having a crucial vote 2 days before the 26 of October 1929 (Great Depression) and the lawmakers are thinking about their re-election. There will be nobody to vote, we will all be out of job, because if nothing is done NOW the second Big Depression is coming.... Who will be to blame? First the CEOs and Wall Street greedy executives - playing russian roulette with the investor's money - and then the lawmakers "thinking about their re-election". My God !!!!

Politics reigns. And you can be sure that there will be eloquent fingerpointing come say Wednesday when China decides our bonds are a bum investment and wants its $Trillion in cash, thank you. Would you really trust a country that is so racked with partisan rancor and so busy with an election that they can't take care of the second most important business of all?

All you voters remember what your congressman and Senators did for you today and consider whether it is time to fire the political parties and vote every one of these folks out of office.

A great day for democracy. Well done to all who voted against. Don't buy the bailout BS. There will be no credit vacuum, there is plenty of cash around and it will find worthwhile uses when the time is right.

It may be Armageddon for the old way of doing business on Wall Street (let's hope), but it's going to be a bright new dawn for the American people and the rest of of the World.

To all of those who didn't want the bill: the biggest problem is that no one has suggested an alternative solution to this huge financial crisis. It's not just US banks that are failing; a bunch of European banks have failed too.

All the people (citizens and politicians) who say let the businesses fail and that the bailout bill is worthless just don't the the economic underpinnings in play. They also have no idea how much financial pain is coming to them now.

Lack of leadership - yes. What's worth is lack of understanding and urgency among those leaders.

Einstein correctly observed that you cannot solve a problem with the same consciousness that created the problem in the first place. This "financial crisis" is an opportunity to correct the problem at its source. As I listen to the wrangling on Capitol Hill I wonder why it is that no one has proposed the most obvious solution. We can all agree that speculators do not produce anything of value or contribute to a productive economy. If, as Henry Paulson and George Bush insist, the "credit freeze" prevents legitimate businesses from operating and qualified borrowers from having access to credit for student loans and mortgages, let’s examine the source of that credit freeze ~ private lenders. Thomas Jefferson successfully overcame the relentless privatization schemes of international financiers by nationalizing the banking system and restoring the function of currency and credit creation to the US government, just as our Constitution mandates. Our country has been in the grip of a private monopoly on public credit since 1913. The constitutional authority to create money and issue credit rightfully belongs to the government ~ not to a private cartel of international financiers. The US government can issue its own legal tender and issue credit to legitimate businesses and qualified borrowers to restore a prosperous economy.

A government lending institution could be established to refinance the loans of defaulting homeowners at reasonable fixed rates, allowing families to keep their homes and stabilizing the real estate market. As you must be aware, predatory lenders hiked up the interest rates on ARMS 14 points within two years! House payments doubled and sometimes tripled! These homeowners were not "sub prime" borrowers. They were victims of usury and fraud. Banks could easily have readjusted their loan terms but they chose to foreclose, destroying home values in every state in the country and wiping out the only real asset of the middle class. The same predators are now demanding bailouts! Government-issued credit to refinance these loans would undoubtedly be far less expensive than the $700 billion Goldman Sachs is demanding, plus the $85 billion AIG is demanding, plus the bogus "securitized" debts of Fannie May and Freddie Mac, plus the trillions of dollars in worthless derivatives contrived by Wall Street gambling casinos. We do not need to reimburse gamblers for their losses. We need to provide new money and new credit to responsible and productive individuals who contribute to our economy. Reclaiming government authority to issue credit would solve the problem now and forever.

Being stampeded by the perpetrators of fraud will exacerbate the crisis. We need to shift our focus to creating a new financial structure. The Secretary of the Treasury has historically been in cahoots with Wall Street hustlers and does not serve the US government or its citizens, as Goldman Sachs CEOs, Henry Paulson (and Robert Rubin) so aptly demonstrate. He would have us rush into a legally-binding contract that would give him unprecedented powers over the economic and financial life of the US forever. Section 8 of Paulson’s plan states: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” RED FLAG! Paulson is a member of the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors, the nexus of predators that bankrupted Argentina in the blink of an eye. Like so many IMF victims, Argentina was strategically gutted by crippling debt, radical deregulation and privatization schemes. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and free market buccaneer Milton Friedman applauded the carnage as the lifeblood of one nation after another was sucked dry by roving vampire capitalists. We are next ~ unless we see to root of this "financial crisis" and protect our country.

The Federal Reserve System is not federal and has no reserves. It is a privately-owned bank consortium that creates public debt and feeds on taxpayers ~ a Ponzi scheme. It cyclically engineers bubbles and depressions by arbitrarily expanding and contracting its credit and reducing the public's purchasing power by steadily inflating its fiat “notes.” In essence, this is a debt pyramid scheme that enriches a cartel of international financiers at the expense of society. The cycles of global economic dependency and despair will continue until this debt monopoly is banished.

In 1934, Congressman Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, described the cabal of world bankers who hijacked our monetary system in 1913. He stated on the Congressional record:

"Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies which prey upon the people of these United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money lenders. In that dark crew of financial pirates there are those who would cut a man's throat to get a dollar out of his pocket; there are those who send money into states to buy votes to control our legislatures; there are those who maintain international propaganda for the purpose of deceiving us into granting of new concessions which will permit them to cover up their past misdeeds and set again in motion their gigantic train of crime. These twelve private credit monopolies were deceitfully and disloyally foisted upon this Country by the bankers who came here from Europe and repaid us our hospitality by undermining our American institutions."

In his 1899 book, The History of Money in America, the great monetary historian Alexander Del Mar, described the catastrophic error made by our “Founding Fathers.” While the Constitution assigns the function of money creation to the federal government, it does not explicitly describe the mechanism for issuing currency and credit, leaving that function open to predators:

"Never was a great historical event [The American Revolution] followed by a more feeble sequel. A nation arises to claim for itself liberty and sovereignty. It gains both of these ends by an immense sacrifice of blood and treasure. Then when victory is gained and secured, it hands the national credit - that is to say a national treasure over to private individuals, to do as they please with it! ... Americans of the revolution had before them ... the historical examples of Greece and Rome . In all these states the main contention from first to last between the aristocratic and popular factions arose out of and centered in the monetary system; that greatest of all dispensers of equity or inequity. They had only to take care that the seed they planted was genuine and uncontaminated. Nature was certain to do the rest. Well they planted; and now look at the fruit and see what it is that they planted! They planted financial corporations ... they planted private money ... they planted financial exemptions from public burdens...In a word they planted another revolution."

This is the moment to correct the catastrophic error of our Founding Fathers. Government control of our monetary system is fundamental to our freedom and our national sovereignty. It is fundamental to permanent economic stability and genuine productivity. Deep and lasting monetary reform requires that we establish a government mechanism for creating money and issuing credit.

Money is a legal fiction which derives its value from social consensus. Legal tender does not require commodity backing, such as gold or silver, but only social agreement that it can be used as a medium of exchange. Publicly-owned credit issuing mechanisms can be created as a non-profit public service or the interest on loans can be used to finance government in lieu of taxes. Publicly-owned mechanisms would keep money circulating as a convenience that facilitates the exchange of goods and services and would reward productivity by making investment capital available to legitimate businesses that serve society.

Attorney Ellen Brown, historian Stephen Zarlenga and economist Michael Hudson have documented historical precedents for US government-owned monetary systems with blueprints for implementing the mechanisms ~ which, by the way, were very successful in colonial times, flourished again under Abraham Lincoln, and would have been restored by John F. Kennedy with Executive Order 11,110, had he not also been assassinated. And right there on Capitol Hill we have Ron Paul (R-TX) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), both of whom have studied our monetary system in depth and are willing to introduce legislation that would restore our financial sovereignty. So what’s the mystery about solving the “financial crisis”?

The Chinese pictograph for crisis is also the symbol for opportunity. Wall Street hustlers have brought our country to the edge of financial collapse once again. But with the whole nation focused on the need for deep reform we can seize this moment to create a genuine legacy of freedom for future generations ~ a new monetary system wholly owned by the People of the United States. Carpe Diem!

Let's face facts. No one in D.C. knows what to do and/or what is the solution. Economists are all over the lot-- some saying essential-- others saying the whole bill is up-side-down because it bails out those who were the worst managed and made the biggest mistakes. Acting on complete ignorance is crazy and may just make matters even worse. Let it die permanently.

How much of a dent in that $700 billion could we make if we just passed a quick bill repossessing their bonuses for the year? Percentagewise, I guess it's a drop in the bucket, but enough to buy us a little time? You hold his arms and I'll grab his wallet!

What lost today's vote was the current speaker (Nancy Pelosi)! What possessed her to lambast the republicans prior to this critical vote is totally beyond me, BUT SHE IS NO LEADER! Through her partisan speech today, she set up some members who may lose on November 4 -- not against them as much as there will be a vote against HER!!

The Good LORD was probably looking down on us, for this was a clear vote NO FOR SOCIALISM!!

There is enough blame to go around on this fiasco. The Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, started the ball rolling. And while there is a lot of blame to be placed on the Administration for not ram rodding more regulation through, there is a lot of culpability in Franklin Raines (Clinton's former OMB chief), Jim Johnson (initially Obama's VEEP search committee chair) and Jamie Gorelick (all over the Clinton administration -- DOD & Justice to name two), and their cheer leaders in Congress. Candidly, it is probably time for a new chair of the banking committee. Barney Franks provided a lot of cheerleading to keep lose credit going, as did Chris Dodd in the Senate.

Point being, it is time for new leadership in the House and Senate. We cannot afford the current speaker any longer. In the largest vote of her career -- she lost! 40% of the Democrats DID NOT VOTE FOR THE BILL!! Historians will ask the rhetorical question: WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?????

I did some eresearch on the Dow Jones Index.
Between apr and oct 2003 it dropped from 10403.94 to 7591.93; a drop of 2812.01 points. That's 703 points per month.

I think there is a margin of at least four days to consider reworking this bill. Including relief for harried homeowners (homeowers?) might go a long way to making this "rescue" more palletable to taxpayers.

If the Government is the Dealer that made the financial drugs available, and banks, mortgage companies and wall street are the Pushers, then there are still the Users. Those who bit into the forbidden apple, that knew deep inside, there is no free lunch, there is no "sounds too good to be true mortgage."

Until everyone has an honest talk with themselves, there will be nothing but finger pointing. The first presidential candidate to stop patronizing the Middle Class, and join in recognizing we all have contributed in this mess, well that candidate might have a chance to rise above the ineffectual chatter.

A bold move, treat the Middle Class with enough respect to say, well, I screwed up, and you screwed up. You, listened to me, you got caught up in the hype, and I am elected to listen to you. My bad.

It's hard to understand how the failure of a few investment banks can adversely affect the economy when ther are several, more efficient banks to take their place. The only possible outcome is a natural improvement in the economy.

Because N. Pelosi couldn't resist another attack - like a dog over a carcass - this bill went down.
The Dems are in the majority & she couldn't get 94 of them to vote FOR it.
Picking her shows how clueless the Dems are lately.

Why is it, when legislators are pushed by their consituents to vote a certain way, it's characterised as a bad thing? If these representatives are afraid they might not get elected next time because they bailed out a bunch of fat cats, it only means democracy is actually working. They must listen to the voters; that is actually their job.

Give the money to the tax payers, the American people set up in a way designed to pay off bad debt. #1 Reducing the debt of the American people who are the ones really suffering and #2 getting the money to the banks and the creditors. $600 stimulus is hardly doing anything to get things moving. After all we are talking 700billion. Now a $50,000 stimulus per household may really help get those serious about getting out of debt. It will certainly increase spending. The middle market are the ones who are really suffering. Cost have gone up but wages have not. We pay more yet get less. We have all been put on a level playing field. Now they are feeling what we have to deal with day to day.

it's going to be interesting when everyone who cried hell no....is un-employed because there's no work. no new construction jobs, no sales jobs because people have no money for shopping, higher costs of everythign because the dollar will drop again and imports will cost more and exports t others far less. No new car loans, so the big three manufactrures take another hit. No college loans, and america sinks further behind in the world in terms of education because it can't be afforded. Main Street thinks this isn't there problem....but it will be; it's just a matter of time.

i;m tired of people who bought houses bigger than the could afford, whining and cryign for a free handout. I got a fixed rate, I struggle to get by and do my best as I can. What will I have to show for it - nothing because my 401 k tanked today!! thank you to all you idiots who had to keep up woth the joneses and buy more and bigger.

and on the un-patriotic comments I read; did you know that for a while a bank owned by the chinese national government was considering buying one of those failing wall street businesses. someone will save wall street. But if your not careful it may not be red white and blue, and then where will your "democracy" be.

democracy wins for the day...the entire world's markets drop like a rock as a result, and the view of amreicans goes further into the toilet.

Rich people can weather the storm. It's the people living paycheck to paycheck that will be decimated by this failure.
Posted by: sdm9 | September 29, 2008 5:21 PM
________________________________________

The bailout failed because it was wrong for most Americans. It failed in spite of all the major media including the Post cheerleading for it. The last week has clearly shown who is a friend of the working man and who is not- and the media is certainly not.

1. The House is controlled by the Democratic Party. Don't blame Republican’s for not doing what the Democratic House has the power to do without a single Republican vote.

2. John McCain took a big risk by suspending his campaign, offering to postpone the debate, returning to DC, and offering to work nonstop on a bipartisan basis with Barack Obama to make the bill happen.

3. Pelosi, Reid, and Obama responded by skewering McCain--going so far as to accuse him of queering the "deal" for a bill.

4. The defacto leaders of each party are Obama and McCain, and they SHOULD HAVE been encouraged to return to their day jobs in Washington to work 24/7 until the thing got done.

So sweaty to make political hay over the crisis were Reid, Pelosi and Obama that the deal got killed.

According to Boehner, several GOP congressmen got their feelings hurt by Pelosi's partisan remark, so they decided to let US citizens lose their jobs and their houses rather than vote for the bill. ARE THESE SPOILED CHILDREN???

Ok everyone,lets all do this together,Republicans and Democrats...Google the STET Tax...this alone set correctly can bail out wall street all on it's own,no need from the tax payer.
Hey,they don't want to bail wall street on in congress with tax payers funds,I don't either,lets try something that will work,my bet is that congress won't,but should.

Break up the large lending institutions and create a competitive marketplace where no one player failing has a substantial impact on the market, that will permanently rectify the need to bail out companies that fail.

"4 - 5 year suspension of cap gains tax – this will flood US financial markets with new capital."

Yeah because this giant failure won't happen again if you get RID of the tax instead of just cut it drastically. We tried that. It failed. Immediately null all contracts with pre-payment penalties, cut the bottom tax bracket. Make up for the resulting revenue loss with increased infrastructure user fees and tariffs. Punish companies with taxes for offshorings and use the additional revenue to cut corporate and small business taxes.

WE SHOULD ALL BE REJOICING TO THE FAIL OF THIS MONSTROUS, IDIOTIC BILL.

I don't want my hard-earned money going to the ones responsible for bringing down this economy because they decided to give out countless bad lends to the majority of Mexican illegal aliens for houses and such. I work my butt off to afford what I have, and keep what I keep, they deserve this hell they've created for privileging these vultures on our society.

That's right, now we all put our genius hats on and blame the Republicans - for what? For joining with 95 Democrats and nixing a bill that no one can be sure will fix the "problem".

We all stand by and watch the mess build up over the years and now watch the same group (Barney, Dodd and the rest of the braintrust) tell us that we have to fix this NOW. Then, the first bill out of the box contains Acorn pork and we are supposed to believe they have the best interest of the economy at stake. If Pelosi wanted this bill to pass, she has the power, she does not need the Repubs. Check your high school "American Government" textbook.

We all can take the blame. When we drove around watching houses being built that few could reasonably afford or saw suburban housing developments coming out of the mud overnight, or saw interest rates drop to the cellar and watched every carpenter with a pickup truck incorporating his home-building business and trading that truck in for a Hummer, then hiring dozens of shall we say "imported" workers, we all should have asked questions.

When we flipped our houses for our dream home only to flip it again when we saw the increase in value, we were part of the problem.

Home ownership is a privilege, not a right and your house is a home, not a short-term investment vehicle.

We all need to think this through and our leaders have to do a better job of addressing the problem without creating needless soap opera panic....

The vote is simply Congress putting re-election politics before country, reflecting their constituents hatred of Wall Street before rational thinking. The economists are academics, and not living in the real world. The US will pay a severe economic price for this do-nothing vote.

Folks,
There are so many people writing that they want Wallstreet to get punished. Please understand that even though this bill is not wonderful, it or something like it is desperately needed. The problems that it is designed to mitigate aren't confined to wallstreet.

If you use a credit card, an ATM machine, receive a paycheck, have or plan to get a car loan, have a mortgage, buy things, or sell things you will be affected by this crisis. The financial "black hole" that we stand on the edge of, is the collapse of the modern finance system with its interconnected systems of credit that affect us all.

Bad decisions were made by wall street executives. They ought to be examined, and if necessary, punished and penalized. But don't punish yourself.

"Well, maybe with Republicans blocking the passage of this bill, Democrats will be able to gain a majority in the House and Senate this fall.
If they do, you can be sure that Democrats will do a much better job of running the country than the Republicans have for the last 8 years.
We need a Democrat majority.
Posted by: MDLaxer | September 29, 2008 3:39 PM"

Republicans are not at fault...there are enough dems to pass the bill...40% of dems didn't vote for it....failure of pelosi's ability to lead...

I suppose we need this bailout but nothing is guaranteed for the people. Give the vote to the people not those crooked politicians. Are there any guarantees that the people will be bailed out? I don't think so.

With 95 democratic nays Pelosi and Frank blame 12 republicans? So what if they awitched. With that large majority the Dems have they can't whine about losing a vote. Take care of your own caucas after all the democrats rolled over the republicans to pass the Sham Oil Bill last week. Pelosi showed terrible leadership by giving that pre-vote partisan rant. She was trying to gin up some more Democrat votes. They can pass anything they want. they like to say the buck stops with bush well today it stops with Pelosi.
Actually I'm glad for I'm against the bailout as it stands anyway.

Look, the thing went down because it was bad policy, and just about everybody outside the beltway knew it, even those on Wall Street who were begging for it. The fact that the market turned down only goes to show how much the expectation of a taxpayer handout had inflated asset prices.

"I don't think we should bail out Wall Street and I'm a Democrat. We need to bail out main street first. Let main street re-negotiate the mortgages, demand strict oversight and reasonable regulations. Only inject enough money into the markets to stablize until people can re-negotiate their mortgages and deal with the bankruptcy issue. I don't think anyone in Congress would risk not voting for a Main street bail out unless they didn't want to be re-elected."

Jacquie, if you have had a mortgage for any length of time, it's likely been sold several times by now. If it has been sold and made part of these mortgage backed securities, its owners may number in the hundreds. So when you want to renegotiate your mortgage, who do you negotiate with?

And if you decide to just legally void the contracts with all those other owners so you can have just one owner again, how do restore confidence in the rule of law for any future transactions or investment. If the U.S. government can simply decide my claim on part of your mortgage is null and void, why the heck would I or anyone else invest again in anything. And if we don't invest, where does the money come from to start businesses, employ people etc?

Whether or not one was in favor of the bailout bill, it is (I hope) clear that something should have been done and was not. Markets aren't just reacting to the failure of the bill. They're reacting to the evidence that the US government (executive and legislative) is dysfunctional.

The sh*t is hitting the fan now. Irresponsible legislators and candidates, whether Republican or Democratic, will point fingers, create rancor and make the finding of a new solution impossible, just to get (re)elected. Reponsible ones will try to bridge the partisan divide and call for calm. For now it looks like the first category has the majority.

Credit crisis? Housing slump? Nonsense- it's a housing mania. Housing prices have always only risen along with income. Until now. Housing is still too expensive and must come down. It's not a slump, it's realism. Any solution which assumes that prices must stabilise rather than continue to drop is delusional.
Credit crisis? Perhaps, but what brought it on was ultraeasy credit- where high risk loans were given out indiscriminately. Easy credit inflated house prices, and high prices compelled borrowers into risky loans. The crisis can't be solved by continue to inflate the bubble with more easy credit.
Perhaps a long recession is overdue.

Leave it to McCain to blame the failure of the bill being passed on Obama. His handlers are certainly leading him astray. What an idiot remark. The Republicans need to do a massive house cleaning and start over. So much for country first!

Goldman Sachs largely created the "crisis" - Paulson pocketed over $700 million - - then they positioned themselves in "Government" to get bailed out with hundreds of billions - - they should be all indicted and forced to pay back every sent of "salary and bonus" scammed - - nothing but con artists running the "investment" banks, and the President should go back to what he is best at, male cheerleading with his roomie who is now the Ambassador to Poland, what a disaster this cretin has been . . . .

democracy wins for the day...the entire world's markets drop like a rock as a result, and the view of amreicans goes further into the toilet.
aren't we all so proud of ourselves.
Posted by: anon | September 29, 2008 5:29 PM
________________________________
YES I'M PROUD TODAY! and it's been a long time since I've felt the people of my country STOOD UP!!
As for further down whatever GLOBAL APPRECIATION toilet you fantasize about,,I think the majority of the world looks on this the way I do...WE"VE STOOD UP TO THIS "NEOCON FEAR MONGERING!!

This is similar to the energy crisis: when there's plenty of cheap gas flowing, people like me are called tree-huggers for suggesting the use of other alternatives. Now, everyone is talking about green and conservation. WHERE WERE YOU HYPOCRITES BEFORE?

When the greedy financial market hits consumers' pockets, all of a sudden we need the government to bail out the banks who couldn't resist the candy in the candy store. Stop and think! This is the ONLY chance to reform the banking system and put in a balanced regulation that allows for plenty of profits and growth. Stop being greedy - there's plenty of opportunities to make moeny in what COULD BE a strong economy. Unless, of course it's abused to the point of no return - like right now.

Everybody has an opinion. What about facts. This home mortgage setup was affirmative action for homeowners and some people really made out like bandits, and others the royal turn of the screw. Who made all the $$$. Who refused to listen to warnings. Who could have passed this thing last week. Why didn't they. Who actually cares? in congress? A few, but certainly not the ones like the school-yard bully, gets backed into the corner so starts to through rocks. They are never the problem.

Hi DD - ditto to that! "Take the 1% tax break away from the rich and pay off all debt..." How about we sieze the BILLIONS in ASSETS of the GREEDY execs to help the HOMEOWNERS who stand to lose their houses because of the bankers' and lenders' unscrupulous practices!

Let the market get back into balance after speculators bloated it! The market operates in CYCLES - ups and down. It's not the government's job to get involved to save greedy bastards.

What's more, I call the "people won't be able to get credit" line a bluff. Anyone who can't reasonably pay back a loan shouldn't be applying for it. Period.

In fact, I encourage everyone here to write to their state Representatives and Senators to tell them how we feel. Afterall, THEY WORK FOR US.

Is America ready for socialism? Not yet.
Is it good?
You decide.
Second FDR? Vote Obama.
Do we have any choice left?
...
And this VERY bad news.
More to come.
Will we have two-party system at least?
Vote "No" is NO to the Republican "leadership"!
And this is good.
The rest is bad.

This is NOT ABOUT YOUR FREAKING "IDEALS", this is not about the values of your party, this is not about punishing the market for its greed. This is about SAVING OUR ECONOMY AND THUS THE WORLD. SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO DO THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE.

RETROACTIVELY SAYING "I TOLD YOU SO, NOW YOU CAN BURN FOR IT" DOESN'T HELP ANYONE OR SOLVE ANYTHING!

People who go to school to become experts on the economy are called economists. How come google search for "economists" and "bailout" hardly turns up anything in favor of this bailout? And how come all major media outlets are talking about what politicians think about it? Aren't you supposed to consult the economists? Public might benefit more from what economists have to say, not the politicians. When your car is broken, you don't take it to the plumber.

Republicans screwed the whole deal and the market just dropped more than 700 points. They're blaming a "speech" by Nancy Pelosi for kiboshing the thing. Don't believe it for a minute. House minority leaders couldn't get the votes. They failed. McCain offered his "leadership." He failed. But give them the benefit of the doubt. Let's ASSUME Republicans are telling the truth. If they're THAT petty that they'd cause a market crash over hurt feelings over a speech, the whole lot of them should be eliminated. Worthless crybabies.

There are approximately 4 million homes currently for sale in the US. The median home price is $212,400. A good guess is that only 10% are foreclosures and at least 2/3 of the value can be recovered, which means only $28 billion would be required for a bailout. What is the other $672 billion for?

"1. The House is controlled by the Democratic Party. Don't blame Republican’s for not doing what the Democratic House has the power to do without a single Republican vote."

I can't seem to remember who asked for this bill. Hmmm. Oh that's right, Bush did. The Dems did their job to make it palatable enough to their party that their party largely voted for it and not getting a veto from Bush. The Republicans are simply playing stupid little games.

"2. John McCain took a big risk by suspending his campaign, offering to postpone the debate, returning to DC, and offering to work nonstop on a bipartisan basis with Barack Obama to make the bill happen."

Where he simply distracted people and wasted time as he is not any of the relevant committees and he is in the Senate, not the House.

"3. Pelosi, Reid, and Obama responded by skewering McCain--going so far as to accuse him of queering the "deal" for a bill."

Which is probably a lot better than McCain deserves for his ridiculous political grandstanding.

"4. The defacto leaders of each party are Obama and McCain, and they SHOULD HAVE been encouraged to return to their day jobs in Washington to work 24/7 until the thing got done."

Except that the democrats didn't know that the republicans would get their feelings hurt and pout. Of course, you generally don't see that kind of behavior with adults. I guess that doesn't include Republicans.

"So sweaty to make political hay over the crisis were Reid, Pelosi and Obama that the deal got killed."

That's not spin, that's just fantasy. I guess that's what happens when your entire economic philosophy is proven to be an epic failure. You either take responsibility and say "I was wrong" or you start writing fiction. Which is just as well, its good to have another talent in hard economic times.

Unregulated free market economy is a nice way of saying "anarchy". Be careful what you ask for. There's a reason human beings have developed and maintained governments for so many generations. Please don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

"A great day for democracy. Well done to all who voted against. Don't buy the bailout BS. There will be no credit vacuum, there is plenty of cash around and it will find worthwhile uses when the time is right.

It may be Armageddon for the old way of doing business on Wall Street (let's hope), but it's going to be a bright new dawn for the American people and the rest of of the World."

Yah right. My next door neighbor is self employed cleaning houses for a living. Three weeks ago she had 15 houses and condos to clean in a week and employed two others. In the last week she has lost 6 of them and seen another two go from weekly cleanings to biweekly and she has had to let the employees go.

Pelosi was trying to kill the bill. She knew if she insulted the Republicans, a few fence-sitters would tell her to stick it. Her plan is to come back with a Christmas tree bill loaded with goodies for all her tax-eater constituencies, including a stimulus package, and then force it through with Democrat votes.

When the economy has flatlined, when you can't get a loan for your house, car or your childrens tuituion, when you get laid off your job because your company can't get any credit, when dozens of banks fail, and when world economy colapes in on itself, and when we are all standing in soup lines, I hope you'll sleep better at night because you where able to stick to your ideology.

Seriously folks. Debt is never going to "rescue" America. We all saw how our "stimulus checks" did nothing to save us. Bailouts don't work. So you don't qualify for that car or home loan??? You're just like me. You CANNOT AFFORD it!
America, live within your means. Then you don't have to worry about a credit crisis.

What are you all thinking? The bailout is the only way we are going to get on track. Dang..... I cannot believe you can be against this..... Do you all have money in the market? Or own houses? My guess is no to both.

"Overpaying for toxic mortgage securities is not going to address the indebtedness of the U.S. consumer.."

The crooks still hope to buy all the mortgages for next to nothing. All they have to do is convince us that the mortgages are worthless. So far they are doing a very good job.

The mortgages are like a crop. Leave it in the field and it is really worthless. It rots. Harvest it and put it in the barn and it has value. But these yo yos are celebrating the failure of the harvest. "You don't see me picking any worthless cotton..."

Realities:
1. Booms create busts
2. Your house is overvalued
3. You are probably in debt
4. Many investors are poor at math
5. No investor can predict the future
6. The president does not control the economy, and the legislature does not control the economy
8. There is always someone to blame/excuse/shelter/praise
9. Throwing money at a problem never cures it.
10. Time cures all ills, fix thyself!

Why worry now? Without freeing up the flow of funds businesses will fail, people will be out of work. They won't have to pay taxes because they won't have any income. The cost to the Country to pay welfare, unemployment, and health care will far surpass $700 Billion. And in the end, those politicians who tried so hard to protect their voters (read that - their jobs) will be out on the street, also.

If you don't know it is, then you have no business commenting here. Look it up, and then look up a five year chart of the TED spread. It's running at about 6-7x times its historical average. Which basically means: the US economy is screwed. Have fun in those bread lines.

There is plenty of blame to go around, but Pelosi called Republicans "unpatriotic" for not coming to the table, then Reid taunted McCain for being AWOL during this mess, McCain called his bluff, showed up, Obama was yanked to the White House like a little boy, where he proceeded to inject himself into the proceedings, then he went back to campaigning, and when a Bill had been shorn of ACORN and other pork (unbelievable, Dodd is really a crook), the only thing Pelosi had to do was to shut up before the vote.

Let some heads roll first - then we can talk about a bailout plan. Both Corporate and Government leaders should be held responsible. After having screwed up they want a bailout? Fire those responsible - from CEOs to congressmen to Senators....and then go back to the drawing board.

Kudos to Augusto on your post. Newt and the contract on America is to blame also. Republicans act like the war started last year and this financial mess started last week. The blood of our loved ones and the blood of our economy are on Republican hands. I will never forget. NEVER

I hate the fact that it didn't pass and I love it too. I hate that 133 Republicans and only 95 Democrats voted against it. I at least admire those Republicans for standing up for their free market principals. More Democrats should have stood up for more regulation and consequences. My 401k is shoot oh well, lets also privatize social security.

The bailout failed because the majority of Americans and economic experts are against this bill. Congress members who voted against this bill were listening to their constituencies. A vote for this bill is almost like a vote for the Iraq war - you know it is wrong. Maybe Congress just for once is listening to the American people and experts on this very important issue rather then listening to their President who led them into an ill-fated war and who ignored the advice of experts. Looks like deja vu - don't trust Bush and his cronies.

The average american has less than a highschool education. No wonder you people don't understand the problem of markent liquidity and short term debt. When you lose your job then you won't be cheering so hard. What's next? No Credit = no working capital = layoffs = bankruptcy = inflation = high prices = depression. All you people gloating over this failure of a rescue are screwed. You'll be digging out of your financial holes for years. Just watch over the next few days as markets crash, foreign governments recall all our dept and the dollar plummets. Your 40k a year won't last 6 months. You really are all stupid.

I think the average American would enjoy seeing some more of the big banks and investment firms fail. I know I would. At least it would be a small measure of justice. And I don't believe the dire warnings that this would cause the whole economy to implode. The people who brought us this mess are the ones screaming the loudest that the sky is falling. Let it fall.

Is this woman crazy! That Pelosi speech was inappropriate and an outright lie!

The Democrats started this melt down back in the days of Carter.

I did the research for you. Here is the information about the ECONOMIC CRISIS.

What this information shows is how deceptive Mr. Obama’s campaign really is. It shows how Mr. Obama’s use of the phrase: Mr. McCain is tied to the same old President Bush failed economic policies is actually a lie. And it shows that the economic policies that led to this financial crisis is from the standard Democratic economic policies.

In other words: Elect Mr. Obama and you will get more of the same. It’s the Democrats way of thinking.

ut according to the link I posted, the Republicans are the ones who opposed the subprime lending policy.

Why would the Democrats lie so blatantly?

It’s called ‘class warfare’. They use the lack of an education by the poor to get them to go after ‘the rich’ because they believe that the poor blame the rich for their poverty. And so they fan that flame. Again, that’s called ‘class warfare’.

You people who are "against" the bailout don't have even the slightest understanding of what you're "against." The fact that the ignorant masses swayed their representatives into voting against this is proof that democracy just doesn't work. Ninety percent of the general population shouldn't even be allowed to dress themselves, much less express their "opinions" about things like the economy.

What are you all thinking? The bailout is the only way we are going to get on track. Dang..... I cannot believe you can be against this..... Do you all have money in the market? Or own houses? My guess is no to both.

We had a similar situation in Scandinavia about 18 years ago. Banks crashed partly due to bad lending practices, economies collapsed and employment shot up to 20%. The governments implemented a similar solution that was proposed in the USA, but was not accepted today.
It took Scandinavian countries 6-10 years to climb out of the hole, but in the end it didn´t cost taxpayers anything to bail out banks. The governments were able to sell their shares on good profit.
It looks like the USA will face severe depression, high unemployment, vanished 401(k) and retirement moneys and contracted domestic spending for next 6 years, at least. Good luck.

Here's one more. Congressional members from both parties do not have American's interests in mind. They have their own. Just look at the disgraceful finger pointing going on in both parties after the vote failed. That is not leadership; that is childish partisan behavior on both sides of the aisle. In fact, I expect more mature behavior from my children. But that's OK. I will express my opinion during the next Congressional election. At least one vote from my state will be anti-incumbent and I'll bet there are a lot more brewing. Who needs term limits?

Pelosi should have beeen able to persuade enough of her own party to get this bill passed. She's the Speaker, why doesn't she act like it?"

Speaker Pelosi did bring along 2/3 of her caucus. However, only 1/3 of the GOP caucus supported the bill. That's the problem - not enough of the Republicans wanted to put their necks on the line. I don't see McCain clamoring credit for the GOP non-support, since this looks like Wall Streets - privatizing the rah-rahs for themselves and spreading the downsides of this defeat to the Democratic Party.

You people who are "against" the bailout don't have even the slightest understanding of what you're "against." ... Ninety percent of the general population shouldn't even be allowed to dress themselves...

So many mistakes, so much blame to go around. But for John McCain to throw partisan presidential politics into the mix last week, blow up the deal and fail to put it back together. And the Republican leadership comes out and claims their members refused to support the bill because they were insulted by some speech of Speaker Pelosi? Are you kidding me? This is a REPUBLICAN rescue plan from a REPUBLICAN president and the Republicans in the House are trying to pin this on the Democratic leadership? This is crazy! I am no economist, but I believe that there was a real failure to properly frame this bill. There is a vast difference between mortgage relief and "Main street" issues that, rightfully, Democrats were demanding and the credit freeze that was the bill's primary focus. People need to be told what happens if the credit market truly grinds to a halt -- their company can't make payroll, stores can't fill inventory, banks don't have money to permit car loans, much less mortgages. People have not been told the real consequences -- the market collapse today is really unrelated other than reflecting the Market's fears about the failure of our leadership. I don't blame Pelosi -- she brought 67% of her party to the table while the President's party could only muster a third of their caucus. And what does John McCain do ... make another speech attacking Barack Obama. By the way Steve Schmidt ... when you attack Barack Obama for "phoning it in" please remember your candidate was sitting in his campaign office in Arlington .... phoning it in to leaders and negotiators on Capitol Hill before dining luxuriously . Lol ... I guess nobody told McCain those funny boxes with the buttons and cool beep sounds work ouside the beltway ... not like a tin can on a string anymore, John, you can actually make phone calls from N.C. and Ohio and all over the place. Liar. This guy who 2 weeks ago told us the economy remains fundamentally strong is not competent to lead us out of this mess.

The mortgage mess was only the trigger. The underlying problem is the fantastic amounts of leverage Wall Street has used in the form of credit default swaps, derivatives, etc. in order to kite their gambling winnings higher and higher. In a football or basketball game we expect to have rules, strong referees, and tough penalties. After three centuries of capitalism we have still not learned that those who are allowed to play games with other people's money need the same, or they will steal the country blind as soon as they get the chance. The free-market ideologues who stand in the way of effective regulation are the biggest obstacle to having a sane and stable capitalistic system.

Most of the Reps did not have a clue what the bill would or would not do but did know what the consequences would be either way they voted and went with the best for themselves. People do not trust Congress at all. They know they are crooks, partisan to a fault, and care only about their own pockets and re-election. They are a whole lot like the scum on Wall Street. Red flag when a known crook says now or doom hits.

1. First problem: Exec compensation. How about "any company feeding at the Treasury Trough cannot pay ANY exec more than the President of the United States".
(Wow!, how's that for a non-starter?)

2. Next: Any focus on the reprehensible Alt-A mortgages (AKA, 'liar loans')? No bailout for anyone selling mortgages without due diligence on the borrower's ability to pay.
And, while I'm sure that there were borrowers too dumb to realize such loans were "too good to be true", I suspect they all said, "if this doesn't work, I'll walk away". Fine, but not on the taxpayers dime.

3. No bailout for rating agencies who claimed Alt-A mortgages are AAA bonds. Criminal fraud charges would be more appropriate.

4. Any sympathy for the people in/near foreclosure? I think that there is room for limits on interest rate jumps...fine print be damned,if you want the Govt to buy your mortgages. But something has to be spelled out...

Tax to transactions, Mediatiom Courts and Strong FHA, Fannie and Frediie will brings us out of the woods, actually there is a lot of untrue things Fannie and Freddie did not do Subprime all they did was conforming so if you dontr understand just dont say that, of course there was a product that was fundamentally wrong and it was "my Communitty" that allowed for up to 65% Debt to Income ratios and this was to serve areas that had a maximum Income locations and there were a lot of regulations to it basically this were not stated income stated assets loans these were mostly good loans BUT the Mortage market melt down and fannie and Freddie were not able to get more money to lend and along with prices dropping and lay offs started well this big companies failed but they were not doing the completely nonsense loans a little crazy but definately not insane suicidal loans.

I remember Econ 101. You know, that supply/demand/price equilibrium thing? The markets naturally weed out the inefficient and the strong survive? Well, we are in for one heck of a correction folks! Let's just hope we don't fall into anarchy and starvation before we get to the other side. Say a prayer and stock up on ammo.

A failure by WaMu was to be the be all end all of failures of this crisis.

Last Thursday WaMu was taken over by JP Morgan Chase. On Friday, I used my ATM card and was able to get the same amount of money from my WaMu account I normally draw after my paycheck is deposited electronically.

It failed because spineless Republican representatives (133 of 'em) can't lead and spineless Democrats (95 of 'em) wanted to milk the system for even more. I'm disgusted, I'm sickened, and I'm as mad as H***. Come Nov. 4, this lifelong Republican who cast his first presidential vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980, is, at the VERY least, withhold my vote for my local spineless representative who voted against the bill. Who knows, if I'm still this angry, I will probably vote for his idiot Democrat opponent and cast a ballot for Barack "The One" Obama on top of that.

The success of the rescue of the U.S. financial system probably depends as much on the central banks of China and the Middle East as on Congress and the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The U.S. is turning to foreign governments and other overseas investors to buy a good chunk of the $700 billion in Treasury debt expected to finance the bailout. Foreign investors also are needed to shore up the depleted capital of the nation's financial institutions, the Journal reports.

The $700 Billion Bailout of our own banks mistakes can ONLY happen IF IF IF financed by China and the Arabs!!!

So......

Our form of Democracy can ONLY be Rescued by begging our enemies for salvation???

What happens when someday they pull the purse strings tight and start making demands???

I believe this is a bad news to the economy. However this kind of bail out should not be entertained at all. It is like giving a pass score to a failing student. He is not going to do any good to himself least.

Hurray, the population spoke out of their detest to this bill, and it got voted down. I am SOOOO glad that the average american is the one making this decision. Heaven forbid that we allow the upper echelon of intellect to make the finance decisions (Paulson) instead of the average american who doesn't have enough savings to last 3 months of unemployment.

Seriously guys, reading this forum pains me. So many un-educated people. It is so unfortunate that your vote in the election carries as much weight as mine.
"Everyone I talk to says they are glad it didnt get passed"
Apparently everyone you talk to is ignorant then. When you can comprehend what happens when the credit markets freeze, then come back and post. **Hint, credit market freezes, sh!t hits the fan in a way you can't imagine**

I keep reading comments that the representatives were doing their jobs by listening to the people. That is not their job. Their job is to lead and make decisions, however unpopular, that are for the good of the country. These guys are all wimps and I am upset that I will have to work until the day I die because even though I saved and saved and saved the money could very well evaporate from my 401K. Thanks for nothing.

Let me asssure you, I will never need for money in 500 lifetimes. So your assessment that we will be shocked when we see our 401k's--I doubt it. I made my money in a free market and if I were dumb, I'd lose it in a free market. However, I'm not dumb--I vote Republican. I'm going to enjoy watching all you liberal cowards starve. If and when, the entire financial system fails--you've certainly earned it. Oh! by the way, don't knock on my door, I voted for the smart people. Go see if Nancy Pelosi will help you out--good luck! Jeeves bring me another martini--this is getting good.

No bailout of Wallstreet.
Use free market solutions to fix the problem-not socialistic measures like government buy outs.
Dissolve Fannie and Freddie-No tax payer subsidized housing loans.If you cant afford,dont buy a house.
Not a penny to credit card companies that gave away cards to people who couldnt afford to payback.If you bought blig bling that you couldnt afford-its your problem.I am not gonna pay for it.

Even Ed Rollins, member of inner circle during Reagan administration, call this $700B entitlement, A SCARE TACTIC by the Bushy administration. Under 8 yrs of Bush, U.S. has alienated the world and now the banking system is about to take a dump.
Tired of this ... BUT Obama is no better -- he did not stand up and fight for people at Cook county in IL. McCain with his past on Saving & Loans failure. Politicans continues to be crooks and greeds just like those Wall Street. If you squeeze main street blood dry and push us into a corner, we will fight back. Learn from history, it was how revolution started.

For you free-market fundamentalists, you got your wish. For those with rational minds, the market is not perfect, not predictable, and most certainly not fundamentalist. And right now, not safe. How many times do they have to attempt to put the square peg in the round hole before they get it?

Anyone who would even consider voting for a Republican for anything besides scooping up the Elephant excrement from the departing hoards of parasites formerly know as the GOP; must be a brain-washed Christian evangelical or worse!

You know, I think it amusing that the Republicans are being blamed (or credited) for this bill's defeat. Aren't the democrats a majority in congress? Forty six percent of the no votes came from democrats. Were they also offended by Speaker Pelosi's comments? The vote did not fall along party lines. The defeat should be credited to a bi-partisan effort.

Thank you Nancy Pelosi for injecting non-professional partisan crap into the Bill that no one wanted to pass but needed to. They took out all the Democrats "earmarks" for bs that had nothing to do with the bailout and yet when she could have walked her talk as she has for the past week, she failed miserably. Barney Frank? Who cares? He and his Demcratic leaders that have run Freddie and Fannie Mae into the ground for years have blocked legistlation along with Harry Reid and the Democrats for oversight while Frank and his colleague bilked out over 100 million dollars in profits, special loans for themselves and corruption. But stepping back from the partisan plantform for a minute, Democrats want a fillibuster proof senate so Nancy wanted to make that statement to protect those new seats the Dems will pick up just like she did by avoiding and "up down" vote on the drilling bill before they all went on vacation. She is proving that she is not fit to serve as Speaker of the House. "Feelings hurt?" Easy for you to say Barney with your corrupt Democratic friends ... oh yeah did we mention that the top political benefactors of Freddie and Fannie were 3 key democrats including Reid (conflict of interest) and Obama who has only served maybe 120 days in the Senate while he phones in his opinions. Fact check is keeping the Truth in check. All you other idiots can go find dead people and illegals to vote under ACORN, hahah

Re: Point #1 Does anybody really think that the federal government is going to make any of the taxpayer money back? They will lose more money as the federal unions bloat overhead, and scandals will erupt after evidence of self-dealing and selling properties for well under the going rate will be made and later discovered.

How does Dodd, Rangel, Pelosi, et al., keep their positions after this, one of the greatest showings of political cowardice in modern history?

pershing is wromg, as usual.
sandra pelosi is not a leader. she never was!
the bill failed because congress has been getting email and phone calss glore, and they knew citizens are in revolt mode.
Still, pelosi is not a leader!
let the chips fall where they may....

I live in Malvern, England - just across the Atlantic! It seems to me that the problem IS a major one. Any "bail-out" is not to help the bankers, but to stabilise the worlds financial system. Britain is doing it, other European countries are doing it too. Why don't Americans appear to read the world news???

The Republicans created this mess by deregulation. They gutted the SEC enforcement division years ago. Since then, they have flatly refused to enforce the few remaining regulations. And they have blocked Democratic attempts to fix the problem over the last several years.

After this, I think voters will rightly be angry at the Republicans. I expect they will not be able win elections for many years to come. Not even a Dog Catcher in Utah.

The only conclusion that I can come to is that our so called congressional "leaders" are either cowards or completly ignorant or both. The demogogery that came out of these congressmen ans Senators mouths today was dispicable. The line I dispised that most was that they were protecting tax payers monies. Well Hello, when the taxpayers see what their failed leadership has led to in the pension plans; 401 k plans; home values; any other investment; job stability; they will realize just how well the TAX PAYERS WERE NOT protected. There is going to be zero capital gains tax this year it will be all losses. There will be very little income tax receipts this year because people either lost money in the market or just plain lost their jobs and or thier homes. Unemployment up; welfare up; homelesness up. Helluva a Job dopes. Well thank you spinless cowardass congressmen and Senators. The next few months are going to be hell to pay. I am for voting for ANY third party candidate out their becasue this Congress STINKS!

Nationalize the failed banks and financial companies, fire the top executives who created this mess, wipe out the shareholders and bondholders who allowed it to happen, reorganize and recapitalize them, and sell them to the highest bidder. It's been done before, and it should be done now.

unfortunately they need to pass the bill. the dems do have enough votes to do it, all they have to do is put in the things the rest of them want. Do you think Bush will VETO IT???? They tried to do it bipartisan, satisfing the middle. the extremes on both sides failed us. Jesse Jackson Jr voted against it!

None of us want this. afterwards when they start pointing fingers at wall street and find a few goats, we the people should demand that start the investigation right in the halls of congress. send about 20 of them, both dems and pres to jail.

I bet you would see amazing changes.You cant' fix anything until DC is fixed. Jail, purges is the only way out.

Tonight London Traders have calculated this no-vote will cost my US elderly relatives up to 7-8% of their pensions.
Thank you so much; all of you US senators and Rep who have markedly failed us , the People. Thanks for the diminished pension.
You laughed at France and Britain, called them socialized,... the fire had already badly damaged the house, are you goibg to act when it will reach the basement ?
Methinks you will then consider those countries awful capitalistic at the rate you are ruining the States.

Canton (R. Va.) said the House conservatives voted agains the bill because Speaker Pelosi said sonething that offended them. Barney Frank (D. Vt.) said that he would personally send flowers and visit the 12 Republicans who were offended. He would appologyze to each.

That did not change the minds of the 12 House Republicans.

After the vote one of the House Republicans
asked "How soon can the bill be bought back for a vote. The person in charge said we can bring it back now. She then asked if the House wanted to revote. The person said no."

So the leadership was prepared to re-vote the bill but the House Republican Leader did not want a re-vote.

Ben left out the simplest and ultimately truest reason that the bill failed - most were against it. They are against it because their constituents (us, the voters) are against it 10-to-one. Why should American taxpayer money be used to refund money to Wall Street gamblers who lost on their bad bets? And why should Americans buy back bad investments - from foreign banks? The turbulence on Wall Street is manipulated by investors and caused by self-fulfilling doom and gloom prophesy from the very ones that caused this crisis. It's like they are holding a gun to our heads (in this case our 401Ks and retirement plans) and demanding a firehose to pump money from the Treasury into their pockets. The simplest reason the bill failed: it was a bad bill, most of the representatives know it, and most importantly, we, the voters, know it.

Ronald Reagan said, "We don't negotiate with terrorists."
These are Wall Street financial terrorists threatening our savings and our whole economy. Are we going to give in to them?

Ahmidinajad was right...this country is going down the tubes and it is due to our own stupidity, narcissism, and greed. There is plenty of blame to go around. The Republicans like Graham and McCain who deregulated the banking industry, the voters who put Bush in office, and Jane and John Doe who took mortgages out that were way over their heads....their soft heads sold on the myth of the American Dream and the narcissistic need to keep of with the Jones. We didn't learn from 911 and now we have to self implode to remind ourselves that we are the United States of America and not the Divided States of Narcissists.

Actually, the solution is simple, every working American needs to walk into their employers office and tell them to stop withholding federal taxes. The message will be loud and clear. All Americans are sick and tired of the political rancor and certainly have no interest in bailing out financial giants whose actions precipitated this fiscal calamity. If such action does not cause the politicians to sit up and take notice, then in November vote for anyone who is not currently in public office. We can't do any worse than we are the current group of malingerers.

Of the 3 versions of the bill so far, it seems to be improving. Now we get some stock when we pay too much for high risk mortgages that noone wants; We aren't forced to pay golden parachutes (like the $10+ Million we paid to oust the CEOs at gov't owned Fannie/Freddie - whose idea was that??) The government gets lots more houses to give to the low income. What's not to love here.

Congress enacted the changes that led to the crisis; The Fed regulators enforced them; Wall Street was "flexible and creative" in figuring out how to make money off bad regulations and the new Fed Chair enabled them. There is plenty of blame to go around. Where's that transparency we were promised? I can't wait to read the next version of the bill to see what happens next...

I live in Malvern, England - just across the Atlantic! It seems to me that the problem IS a major one. Any "bail-out" is not to help the bankers, but to stabilise the worlds financial system. Britain is doing it, other European countries are doing it too. Why don't Americans appear to read the world news???
Posted by: Mel | September 29, 2008 5:57 PM
___________________________________

Mind your own business LIMEY..we'll take care of ours!!!
BTW, you live in Little Rock Arkansas dontcha?

I offer a small wager. Contrary to your position that the $700B price tag is an outside number (taxpayers will make some of it back) I predict the price tag will be above $1.4 trillion when measured 6 years out. $100 to your favorite charity.

When did ANY government program not go up by a factor of at least 3X in cost over original estimates? That's why a 2X seems like a safe bet to me. :-)

The only conclusion that I can come to is that our so called congressional "leaders" are either cowards or completly ignorant or both. The demogogery that came out of these congressmen ans Senators mouths today was dispicable. The line I dispised that most was that they were protecting tax payers monies. Well Hello, when the taxpayers see what their failed leadership has led to in the pension plans; 401 k plans; home values; any other investment; job stability; they will realize just how well the TAX PAYERS WERE NOT protected. There is going to be zero capital gains tax this year it will be all losses. There will be very little income tax receipts this year because people either lost money in the market or just plain lost their jobs and or thier homes. Unemployment up; welfare up; homelesness up. Helluva a Job dopes. Well thank you spinless cowardass congressmen and Senators. The next few months are going to be hell to pay. I am for voting for ANY third party candidate out their becasue this Congress STINKS!

One more point let's send more money to Aid foreign countries. What a Joke? The only thing possible worse was their lack of AID to Katrina victims. For the record this isn't even a bail out. If it was a bail out, LEH, BEAR Stearns, Wachovia and possible AIG Fortis .would all exist. They either are now gone or soon will be along with thousands of middle class jobs. So extremely well done congress that I can't even express my outrage!

I live in Malvern, England - just across the Atlantic! It seems to me that the problem IS a major one. Any "bail-out" is not to help the bankers, but to stabilise the worlds financial system. Britain is doing it, other European countries are doing it too. Why don't Americans appear to read the world news???
Posted by: Mel | September 29, 2008 5:57 PM
___________________________________

Mind your own business LIMEY..we'll take care of ours!!!
BTW, you live in Little Rock Arkansas dontcha?

The only conclusion that I can come to is that our so called congressional "leaders" are either cowards or completly ignorant or both. The demogogery that came out of these congressmen ans Senators mouths today was dispicable. The line I dispised that most was that they were protecting tax payers monies. Well Hello, when the taxpayers see what their failed leadership has led to in the pension plans; 401 k plans; home values; any other investment; job stability; they will realize just how well the TAX PAYERS WERE NOT protected. There is going to be zero capital gains tax this year it will be all losses. There will be very little income tax receipts this year because people either lost money in the market or just plain lost their jobs and or thier homes. Unemployment up; welfare up; homelesness up. Helluva a Job dopes. Well thank you spinless cowardass congressmen and Senators. The next few months are going to be hell to pay. I am for voting for ANY third party candidate out their becasue this Congress STINKS!

One more point let's send more money to Aid foreign countries. What a Joke? The only thing possible worse was their lack of AID to Katrina victims. For the record this isn't even a bail out. If it was a bail out, LEH, BEAR Stearns, Wachovia and possible AIG Fortis .would all exist. They either are now gone or soon will be along with thousands of middle class jobs. So extremely well done congress that I can't even express my outrage!

I live in Malvern, England - just across the Atlantic! It seems to me that the problem IS a major one. Any "bail-out" is not to help the bankers, but to stabilise the worlds financial system. Britain is doing it, other European countries are doing it too. Why don't Americans appear to read the world news???
Posted by: Mel | September 29, 2008 5:57 PM
___________________________________

Mind your own business LIMEY..we'll take care of ours!!!
BTW, you live in Little Rock Arkansas dontcha?

someone mentioned "but better a quick, painful correction then a long painful one." you are assuming the adjustment will be quick...do you forget the Great Depression only ended with WWII. On what grounds will this adjustment be quick? What two years from now all this capital will just show up and people will start paying everyone big sums...

With the condensation of capital (banks buying banks) there will be an under capitalization of the middle and lower class. Entrepreneurs will disappear due to a lack of customers and the driving force of this economy (small business) will wither away to nothing...and then a miracle occurs and the economy is right back to where it was before...

I live in Malvern, England - just across the Atlantic! It seems to me that the problem IS a major one. Any "bail-out" is not to help the bankers, but to stabilise the worlds financial system. Britain is doing it, other European countries are doing it too. Why don't Americans appear to read the world news???
Posted by: Mel | September 29, 2008 5:57 PM
___________________________________

Mind your own business LIMEY..we'll take care of ours!!!
BTW, you live in Little Rock Arkansas dontcha?

If I was the Iranians, I would be digging a bomb shelter right now. Is it possible that the US Administration will try to ceate an "October surprise" both for the election and a means of distracting attention from the economic crisis?

I live in Malvern, England - just across the Atlantic! It seems to me that the problem IS a major one. Any "bail-out" is not to help the bankers, but to stabilise the worlds financial system. Britain is doing it, other European countries are doing it too. Why don't Americans appear to read the world news???
Posted by: Mel | September 29, 2008 5:57 PM
___________________________________

Mind your own business LIMEY..we'll take care of ours!!!
BTW, you live in Little Rock Arkansas dontcha?

I live in Malvern, England - just across the Atlantic! It seems to me that the problem IS a major one. Any "bail-out" is not to help the bankers, but to stabilise the worlds financial system. Britain is doing it, other European countries are doing it too. Why don't Americans appear to read the world news???
Posted by: Mel | September 29, 2008 5:57 PM
___________________________________

Mind your own business LIMEY..we'll take care of ours!!!
BTW, you live in Little Rock Arkansas dontcha?

"I made my money in a free market and if I were dumb, I'd lose it in a free market. However, I'm not dumb--I vote Republican. I'm going to enjoy watching all you liberal cowards starve."

Wow, that's pretty sick. You should probably use some of those assets and see a professional therapist. Assuming, of course, they are not imaginary. If so, I'll be pay happy to pay for a few sessions for you.

Now other important thing to say is That if we had not go to Irak and spent 2 trillion dollars there when they have the money from Oil surplus but are keeping it The poor taking the rich to lunch...it makes no sense but we are doing it, this rescue plan would not have looked so bad if it werent for this and NO ONE CAN TELL ME THAT THE WAR IS NOT THE REPUBLICANS BABY, IRAK DID NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING WITH 9/11 AND DID NOT HAVE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION BUSH TOOK US THERE WITH LIES AND SPENT ALL OUR MONEY NOW THAT WE NEED IT WE ARE FKD. THANK YOU REPUBLICANS.

To misquote Wall Street: Greed is not good. We are Rome. We were encouraged to "go shopping" after 9/11 and to spend, spend, spend. If you needed an operation put it on a credit card and declare bankruptcy later. Need a reverse mortgage? Have we got a deal for you!.... We were told we're not in a recession, in fact, Unemployment is Low! Economy's Growing!(sure, on a massive credit card). Then the foreclosures started ....and the bill has come due and the little people who have credit card bills of their own just got pissed off at the HUGE income disparity...they don't get that their jobs depend on credit. I think when the market corrects itself some more, Congress will be compelled to act because people will be demanding it. Right now, it just doesn't seem "real" ... when business inventory truly freezes, when they lose sales b/c their employer can't buy equipment, when they get their 401K revised statements...when they get laid off, lose health insurance... it will get through to people. Hope it's not to late by then. Poor Obama, it will be his mess to straighten out, but being calm in a crisis IS HUGELY important.

yes, tom, a credit freeze would be a bad thing. and there are ways of preventing it. but it ain't compensating gamblers for their losses on the hope that they'll turn around and lend the money back to us. that's just stupid. and like so many others, I'm just thrilled that ordinary Americans saw through the b.s. and told their representatives so, clearly and loudly. put it this way: for $700b, we can buy all the mortgages directly, preventing the fire sale driving down prices, keeping people in their homes, minimizing the risk of market failure, and retaining all the advantages of asset ownership. wall st. can pay its own way out of its gambling problem.

These ninnies in the Congress can say they "stood up to my party and Wall Street" while the rest of America and the world is going down in flames. I hope every one of those House Republicans (and the Democrats who voted against this) feel a steel-toed shoe of working America kicking their sorry, lazy butts to the curb. If you can't make a decision when one needs making the most, you're a pansy -- time to get out!

The only conclusion that I can come to is that our so called congressional "leaders" are either cowards or completly ignorant or both. The demogogery that came out of these congressmen ans Senators mouths today was dispicable. The line I dispised that most was that they were protecting tax payers monies. Well Hello, when the taxpayers see what their failed leadership has led to in the pension plans; 401 k plans; home values; any other investment; job stability; they will realize just how well the TAX PAYERS WERE NOT protected. There is going to be zero capital gains tax this year it will be all losses. There will be very little income tax receipts this year because people either lost money in the market or just plain lost their jobs and or thier homes. Unemployment up; welfare up; homelesness up. Helluva a Job dopes. Well thank you spinless cowardass congressmen and Senators. The next few months are going to be hell to pay. I am for voting for ANY third party candidate out their becasue this Congress STINKS!

One more point let's send more money to Aid foreign countries. What a Joke? The only thing possible worse was their lack of AID to Katrina victims. For the record this isn't even a bail out. If it was a bail out, LEH, BEAR Stearns, Wachovia and possible AIG Fortis .would all exist. They either are now gone or soon will be along with thousands of middle class jobs. So extremely well done congress that I can't even express my outrage!

No pain, no gain. It's time for all citizens to face a tough but true fact of life: you want to get it right, face the truth! Poor managing of your money leads to failure, irregardless of where you are on this so called ladder of society.

My advice in a sea of opinions: find out how all the representatives of your districts and state voted on this bill. Then, decide if they truly represented you.

You want real change: vote out all incumbents who have served more than a generation's worth of time, i.e. 15-18 years in office. Now Reagan's "awe inspiring comment" comes home to roost on the greed of this past 20 years: Are you better off than you were before? As a country, I seriously doubt it!

The only conclusion that I can come to is that our so called congressional "leaders" are either cowards or completly ignorant or both. The demogogery that came out of these congressmen ans Senators mouths today was dispicable. The line I dispised that most was that they were protecting tax payers monies. Well Hello, when the taxpayers see what their failed leadership has led to in the pension plans; 401 k plans; home values; any other investment; job stability; they will realize just how well the TAX PAYERS WERE NOT protected. There is going to be zero capital gains tax this year it will be all losses. There will be very little income tax receipts this year because people either lost money in the market or just plain lost their jobs and or thier homes. Unemployment up; welfare up; homelesness up. Helluva a Job dopes. Well thank you spinless cowardass congressmen and Senators. The next few months are going to be hell to pay. I am for voting for ANY third party candidate out their becasue this Congress STINKS!

One more point let's send more money to Aid foreign countries. What a Joke? The only thing possible worse was their lack of AID to Katrina victims. For the record this isn't even a bail out. If it was a bail out, LEH, BEAR Stearns, Wachovia and possible AIG Fortis .would all exist. They either are now gone or soon will be along with thousands of middle class jobs. So extremely well done congress that I can't even express my outrage!

The only conclusion that I can come to is that our so called congressional "leaders" are either cowards or completly ignorant or both. The demogogery that came out of these congressmen ans Senators mouths today was dispicable. The line I dispised that most was that they were protecting tax payers monies. Well Hello, when the taxpayers see what their failed leadership has led to in the pension plans; 401 k plans; home values; any other investment; job stability; they will realize just how well the TAX PAYERS WERE NOT protected. There is going to be zero capital gains tax this year it will be all losses. There will be very little income tax receipts this year because people either lost money in the market or just plain lost their jobs and or thier homes. Unemployment up; welfare up; homelesness up. Helluva a Job dopes. Well thank you spinless cowardass congressmen and Senators. The next few months are going to be hell to pay. I am for voting for ANY third party candidate out their becasue this Congress STINKS!

One more point let's send more money to Aid foreign countries. What a Joke? The only thing possible worse was their lack of AID to Katrina victims. For the record this isn't even a bail out. If it was a bail out, LEH, BEAR Stearns, Wachovia and possible AIG Fortis .would all exist. They either are now gone or soon will be along with thousands of middle class jobs. So extremely well done congress that I can't even express my outrage!

The only conclusion that I can come to is that our so called congressional "leaders" are either cowards or completly ignorant or both. The demogogery that came out of these congressmen ans Senators mouths today was dispicable. The line I dispised that most was that they were protecting tax payers monies. Well Hello, when the taxpayers see what their failed leadership has led to in the pension plans; 401 k plans; home values; any other investment; job stability; they will realize just how well the TAX PAYERS WERE NOT protected. There is going to be zero capital gains tax this year it will be all losses. There will be very little income tax receipts this year because people either lost money in the market or just plain lost their jobs and or thier homes. Unemployment up; welfare up; homelesness up. Helluva a Job dopes. Well thank you spinless cowardass congressmen and Senators. The next few months are going to be hell to pay. I am for voting for ANY third party candidate out their becasue this Congress STINKS!

One more point let's send more money to Aid foreign countries. What a Joke? The only thing possible worse was their lack of AID to Katrina victims. For the record this isn't even a bail out. If it was a bail out, LEH, BEAR Stearns, Wachovia and possible AIG Fortis .would all exist. They either are now gone or soon will be along with thousands of middle class jobs. So extremely well done congress that I can't even express my outrage!

Let's see here: a bailout plan backed by George W. Bush, architect of the decimated dollar, and Barney Frank, longtime blocker of Fannie/Freddie reform, failed to garner enough votes. Good. Now, can we let the adults handle this? The people who actually understand economics and didn't cause the current mess? That might be something worth listening to.

You people who are "against" the bailout don't have even the slightest understanding of what you're "against." ... Ninety percent of the general population shouldn't even be allowed to dress themselves...

Yeah Corey, I am an idiot. And I make more than you do.
+++++++++++++++++

Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But the fact that you use income as a measuring stick for intelligence proves that you're not very smart. You know who makes a lot of money? Carrot Top! He's a millionaire! He must be a genius!

If Congressional action does not move toward solution and continues to retreat we may see the end of representative democracy. Plenty of imperial advocates of executive power (Cheneys) are waiting in the wings to use capitalism's collapse to say, as did Paulson, "Just leave everything to us."

You people who are "against" the bailout don't have even the slightest understanding of what you're "against." ... Ninety percent of the general population shouldn't even be allowed to dress themselves...

Yeah Corey, I am an idiot. And I make more than you do.
+++++++++++++++++

Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But the fact that you use income as a measuring stick for intelligence proves that you're not very smart. You know who makes a lot of money? Carrot Top! He's a millionaire! He must be a genius!

I am a realist. I do not worry about what I cannot control and Congress is something that I definitely have no control over.
Whatever the reason, I am glad the bill failed. Capitalism has highs and lows and in low times, the weak are consumed by the strong.
It is time to buckle down and see how the market finally settles in. Experience says that fundamentally and fiscally responsible institutions and investors will step in and purchase stocks, companies and real estate at bargain prices. In business, you buy when the price is low and sell at market prices when high. Regardless of who wins this election, I will not permit myself to be allow government to have more control over my family concerns. Those of us that take responsibility for their livelihood and the well being of their families will be fine. Those that depend on the government to make the tough decisions and accept their handouts will continuously be asking and begging for more.
Therefore, I will protect my family and I will be waiting and watching patiently and will take advantage of the situation as it unveils.

If Congressional action does not move toward solution and continues to retreat we may see the end of representative democracy. Plenty of imperial advocates of executive power (Cheneys) are waiting in the wings to use capitalism's collapse to say, as did Paulson, "Just leave everything to us."

Americans that borrowed more then they could ever afford to pay back are at fault for our economic woes. You can blame the banks , Wall Street and Congress all you want but When you buy a BMW & a Mansion on a chevy & Mobil Home budget you get what you deserve.

What's with John McCain? They had him on Bloomberg taking credit for the final bill, then saying how much he supports bipartisianship, that this is no time for finger pointing- then in the very next sentence laying blame on Senator Obama & other democrats?!?!? That obviously ignores the 133 Republicans who suddenly turned on mccain & their own party's leadership, where if 18 less of them hadn't, it would have passed. I'm very tired of john mccain- quite surprising that he somehow got the nomination, let alone is still in office as a senator. Come on, Arizona, isn't there anyone better?

For all those whiners about this not passing and costing them their retirement and their older parents retirement - they should have been out of market risk Wall Street hype. See, you all still believe their hype(did they warn about the coming decline last October as the markets fell in double digits before all this) to save their over priced and overpaid butts.

What's with John McCain? They had him on Bloomberg taking credit for the final bill, then saying how much he supports bipartisianship, that this is no time for finger pointing- then in the very next sentence laying blame on Senator Obama & other democrats?!?!? That obviously ignores the 133 Republicans who suddenly turned on mccain & their own party's leadership, where if 18 less of them hadn't, it would have passed. I'm very tired of john mccain- quite surprising that he somehow got the nomination, let alone is still in office as a senator. Come on, Arizona, isn't there anyone better?

Time to get rid of several democrats and republicans. Time for a new government. This one is wasted away and worthless. Nancy Polosi, well the sooner she's out the better everybody will be. Nothing from California ever has been much good. Look at history! At least we still have the right to bear arms!! Might just need them!!!!!

You people who are "against" the bailout don't have even the slightest understanding of what you're "against." ... Ninety percent of the general population shouldn't even be allowed to dress themselves...

Yeah Corey, I am an idiot. And I make more than you do.
+++++++++++++++++

Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But the fact that you use income as a measuring stick for intelligence proves that you're not very smart. You know who makes a lot of money? Carrot Top! He's a millionaire! He must be a genius!

What's with John McCain? They had him on Bloomberg taking credit for the final bill, then saying how much he supports bipartisianship, that this is no time for finger pointing- then in the very next sentence laying blame on Senator Obama & other democrats?!?!? That obviously ignores the 133 Republicans who suddenly turned on mccain & their own party's leadership, where if 18 less of them hadn't, it would have passed. I'm very tired of john mccain- quite surprising that he somehow got the nomination, let alone is still in office as a senator. Come on, Arizona, isn't there anyone better?

I hope that all Congress can finally recognize that they represent the American public, NOT the residents of their individual states. Let's truly work together.

The heartland is irredeemably angry. Main street has suffered for nearly 2 years while no one in Congress or the White House listened. Suddenly the market falters and it's an "emergency." Politicians lost their credibility when they followed GWB off the "sky is falling" in Iraq cliff.

Try crafting a bill that REQUIRES something for the average joe, restructing their home and credit debt (set maximum (but time limited) interest rates), permit bankruptcy courts to cram down a restructuring for homeowners upside down in their value/loan ratio AND something for those folks who followed all the rules and did NOT live on credit! Set a maximum limit on who benefits -- those who filed income tax returns indicating EARNED + UNEARNED income for 2007 of less than $250,000 per person.

Then, and only then, add on the measures to enhance liquidity. You might hear the American People then say, "rescue us all."

You people who are "against" the bailout don't have even the slightest understanding of what you're "against." ... Ninety percent of the general population shouldn't even be allowed to dress themselves...

Yeah Corey, I am an idiot. And I make more than you do.
+++++++++++++++++

Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But the fact that you use income as a measuring stick for intelligence proves that you're not very smart. You know who makes a lot of money? Carrot Top! He's a millionaire! He must be a genius!

Any one heard of not buying anything until you have the means to pay for it?

Ever heard of working for what you want in exchange for it? (no money involved)

Quit your weeping, accept what may or is happening to you and yours, and realize you are no one special and deserve only what you work for. You arrived with nothing, and you will depart in the same way

Get off the "Democrats tried to fix this the past 2 years." BS. Go to Fact Check and see that in fact, Obama, Reid, Dodd, Frank and other key Democrats let a bill die that Republicans put in place for oversight that including the support of McCain. They wanted to make sure that everyone had the chance for the American Dream. Well my tax dollars are not paying for someone that had no business in getting a loan ... get a loan. corruption on Wall Street starts in partisan politics. Pelosi should not be ashamed but step down. I along with many will be looking to start investigations and will look into criminal proceedings no matter who wins the White House on key democrats including Barney Frank who should be in jail as we speak. Go ahead, Dems, take the congress and white house under falase accusations and spend the next 4 years in investigation hell. The Truth is coming. In 2009 no matter who wins, The Truth will get your butts out of Washington in disgrace.

Get off the "Democrats tried to fix this the past 2 years." BS. Go to Fact Check and see that in fact, Obama, Reid, Dodd, Frank and other key Democrats let a bill die that Republicans put in place for oversight that including the support of McCain. They wanted to make sure that everyone had the chance for the American Dream. Well my tax dollars are not paying for someone that had no business in getting a loan ... get a loan. corruption on Wall Street starts in partisan politics. Pelosi should not be ashamed but step down. I along with many will be looking to start investigations and will look into criminal proceedings no matter who wins the White House on key democrats including Barney Frank who should be in jail as we speak. Go ahead, Dems, take the congress and white house under falase accusations and spend the next 4 years in investigation hell. The Truth is coming. In 2009 no matter who wins, The Truth will get your butts out of Washington in disgrace.

Get off the "Democrats tried to fix this the past 2 years." BS. Go to Fact Check and see that in fact, Obama, Reid, Dodd, Frank and other key Democrats let a bill die that Republicans put in place for oversight that including the support of McCain. They wanted to make sure that everyone had the chance for the American Dream. Well my tax dollars are not paying for someone that had no business in getting a loan ... get a loan. corruption on Wall Street starts in partisan politics. Pelosi should not be ashamed but step down. I along with many will be looking to start investigations and will look into criminal proceedings no matter who wins the White House on key democrats including Barney Frank who should be in jail as we speak. Go ahead, Dems, take the congress and white house under falase accusations and spend the next 4 years in investigation hell. The Truth is coming. In 2009 no matter who wins, The Truth will get your butts out of Washington in disgrace.

Get off the "Democrats tried to fix this the past 2 years." BS. Go to Fact Check and see that in fact, Obama, Reid, Dodd, Frank and other key Democrats let a bill die that Republicans put in place for oversight that including the support of McCain. They wanted to make sure that everyone had the chance for the American Dream. Well my tax dollars are not paying for someone that had no business in getting a loan ... get a loan. corruption on Wall Street starts in partisan politics. Pelosi should not be ashamed but step down. I along with many will be looking to start investigations and will look into criminal proceedings no matter who wins the White House on key democrats including Barney Frank who should be in jail as we speak. Go ahead, Dems, take the congress and white house under falase accusations and spend the next 4 years in investigation hell. The Truth is coming. In 2009 no matter who wins, The Truth will get your butts out of Washington in disgrace.

Get off the "Democrats tried to fix this the past 2 years." BS. Go to Fact Check and see that in fact, Obama, Reid, Dodd, Frank and other key Democrats let a bill die that Republicans put in place for oversight that including the support of McCain. They wanted to make sure that everyone had the chance for the American Dream. Well my tax dollars are not paying for someone that had no business in getting a loan ... get a loan. corruption on Wall Street starts in partisan politics. Pelosi should not be ashamed but step down. I along with many will be looking to start investigations and will look into criminal proceedings no matter who wins the White House on key democrats including Barney Frank who should be in jail as we speak. Go ahead, Dems, take the congress and white house under falase accusations and spend the next 4 years in investigation hell. The Truth is coming. In 2009 no matter who wins, The Truth will get your butts out of Washington in disgrace.

Warren Buffet says that there will be a financial breakdown like the great depression without some sort of legislation. The reason that there are no good choice now--only bad ones and worse, is that nobody regulated the crooks who owned the government and deregulated everything for the last 15 years.

Probably one factor in the defeat was the speed with which it was written. Not nearly enough time to adequately add earmarks, let alone put in legal language for the money drain loopholes present in so much legislation. My brother was a fraud chief in the IRS and once told me of a single line in the tax code that saved a major industy over $200,000 dollars in taxes.

Probably one factor in the defeat was the speed with which it was written. Not nearly enough time to adequately add earmarks, let alone put in legal language for the money drain loopholes present in so much legislation. My brother was a fraud chief in the IRS and once told me of a single line in the tax code that saved a major industy over $200,000 dollars in taxes.

Warren Buffet says that there will be a financial breakdown like the great depression without some sort of legislation. The reason that there are no good choices now--only bad ones and worse, is that nobody regulated the crooks who owned the government and deregulated everything for the last 15 years.

I don't like this bill, but I hate the alternative. My parents retirement fund is in trouble, My house is worth less than it was when I bought it and people are worried about bailing out fat cats. If we don't do something fast to free up money on Wallstreet, I am going to lose my shirt on Elm Street. The real failure of our government in this mess is the failure to explain the problem to the tax payers.

Now I see a bunch of people here celebrating the idea that rich people are losing money, while their 401k just lost a years worth of growth in one day, maybe tomorrow we can all lose another year and so on. I don't know about anybody else, but I don't want to retire when I am 90. So, as much as I resent the fat cats, I am going to hate the fact that my parents lost their golden years to failing markets more. It is time for America to wake up.

I am a life-long, hard-core conservative republican, but I am glad the biil did not pass. Enough is enough! I am for less government intervention, lower taxes, and and personal hard work to succeed. This bill was anything but that in the most audacious way.

Rescind the Federal Reserve Act retroactive to 1913..fraud, failure of consideration, and unconstitutional, take your pick. Next, Repeal the 16th amendment which was not properly ratified. Finally, Have the treasury collect interest on mortgages and debt as it was intended and specified in the Constitution... thereby offsetting all of the otherwise lost revenue that is going to the NWO

These 3 simple actions would solve just about every problem that the wall street criminals created

The right thing has nothing to do with Wall Street - did any of those that now scream for help, as their dreams of yet another yaught this comming fall fade to black - take their ill gotten gains and convert the bad paper from subprime loans designed to cause foreclosure into 30yr and much more of a commitment mortages?

These people represent the upper 10% that have done everything to grab the wealth from everyone else. To fix the economy has NOTHING to do with them.

The government needs to convert and invest in the homes that represent the bad paper making them stable. The economy is NOT wall street. Its the other 90% of the people. Banks will adjust and fire those that behave badly, new banks will rise in the failures of those that over extended.

Business relies on the people, banks lend based on the health of the businesses. Stocks have become too much of a businesses balance sheet - that has needed contraction for years now.

What can fix the aliments this country faces and has spread to the rest of the world? Exactly what no one did until the top began to suffer... eliminate the foreclosures, use the taxpayer money to give 30yr mortages with credit restrictions and education - since folks seem to not have any money sense.

Reganomics - or giving to the top cause darn it they care and will trickle down, is BS... the people at the top, banks especially - will hold the money out of fear and good business sense... business is not taught properly anymore, to invest simply means to get the most monatary profit... its sad, because profit has so many more forms, many of which ellivate the businessman into history, not just designer goods and luxury.

As can be seen with the failing of bridges, power grids, the hubble telescope, lack of new space transports, all the things that make this country what it was... our country has been robbed, those 10% need to pay it back - what I say is simply this - welcome to the middle class folks, and yes you can fall even further.

Charming. Millions of taxpayers presume to know what the solution is better than the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, the one Wall Street company that did NOT go gaga over mortgage-backed securities. What have any of these people ever managed? How many of these Monday morning quarterbacks can balance a checkbook or add 3 numbers in their head? The Revenge of the Idiots has gone far enough.

I'm going through my fantasy of leaving my live of comfort into a strange shoeless Steinbeckian vision plagued with endless dust and meager portions. I envision the birth of my next child in the back of a rusted pickup near my roadside tent dwelling somewhere along the lonliest highway in the world.

What is going to happen? In the back of my mind: God is Sovereign. If trouble is coming, I never had any control over it anyway.

Hardship is something I can imagine, but can't really get my mind around entirely. After all, I live in more comfort than a most of the monarchs in the history of the world. I'm surrounded by every kind of music I could want. The plays I watch have expertly crafted stories and actors who've trained almost their entire lives just for a chance to compete at being the best, and best of all I can see them any time of day or night. Food is so plentiful, I've never worried a day that I would go hungry, only that I'd eat too much. I have flush toilets, and refrigerated coca-cola. What king ever had that?

So is this end of my life of comfort? It depends. Some say the crash wont hit mainstreet. They say the '87 crash never touched mainstreet. Paulson's warnings sounded more grave. This is not about stock prices, this is about captital freezing up, no more money to be invested or lent.

Only time will tell. Should you start building your mad max style compound with secret vaults of gasoline? Who can know?

History repeats itself. 2% of the population with 98% of the money. people living paycheck to pay check, now add in the CEO's moving jobs away from Americans, while paying the rest low wages.

I could care a less if all stocks fall to zero as I don't have any stock...I barely make my mortgage payment, And if the banks fail 98% of the people in the USA do not have enough cash in said banks to not be covered by FDIC.

So FAIL! Crash the market the only guys loosing big are the FAT CATS that sent your job over seas.

History repeats itself. 2% of the population with 98% of the money. people living paycheck to pay check, now add in the CEO's moving jobs away from Americans, while paying the rest low wages.

I could care a less if all stocks fall to zero as I don't have any stock...I barely make my mortgage payment, And if the banks fail 98% of the people in the USA do not have enough cash in said banks to not be covered by FDIC.

So FAIL! Crash the market the only guys loosing big are the FAT CATS that sent your job over seas. And they want us little guys to pay for it.....SCAM ALERT!!!

I am a life-long, hard-core conservative republican, and I am glad the bill did not pass. Enough is enough! I am for less government intervention, lower taxes, and and personal hard work to succeed. This bill was anything but that in the most audacious way.

I'm going through my fantasy of leaving my live of comfort into a strange shoeless Steinbeckian vision plagued with endless dust and meager portions. I envision the birth of my next child in the back of a rusted pickup near my roadside tent dwelling somewhere along the lonliest highway in the world.

What is going to happen? In the back of my mind: God is Sovereign. If trouble is coming, I never had any control over it anyway.

Hardship is something I can imagine, but can't really get my mind around entirely. After all, I live in more comfort than a most of the monarchs in the history of the world. I'm surrounded by every kind of music I could want. The plays I watch have expertly crafted stories and actors who've trained almost their entire lives just for a chance to compete at being the best, and best of all I can see them any time of day or night. Food is so plentiful, I've never worried a day that I would go hungry, only that I'd eat too much. I have flush toilets, and refrigerated coca-cola. What king ever had that?

So is this end of my life of comfort? It depends. Some say the crash wont hit mainstreet. They say the '87 crash never touched mainstreet. Paulson's warnings sounded more grave. This is not about stock prices, this is about captital freezing up, no more money to be invested or lent.

Only time will tell. Should you start building your mad max style compound with secret vaults of gasoline? Who can know?

The only poeple hurt by all this are the average citizens of this country, not only blue collar, but white collar and no collar.
We cannot blame Bush for all this, he does not work in a vaccum. It is a collective blame. Everyone one who makes 50,000 or 100,000 per year that bought a home for 300,000+ with the idea to sell it at 500,000 are to blame as well, along with those who knowingly loan money to people that were truly not qualified.

What we can blame Bush for is being the worse president we ever had. I only hope we make the right decision this time coming!

Well that pretty much does it. If you want to buy a car, a house, or fund your kids college education in the next several years then you better have a prestine FICO score.

The Congress has sown the seeds of economic ruin. The market has fallen 777 points already. Now watch banks fail one after another. Then the auto makers, then any company that funds themselves with credit, then the company you work for. 20% or higher unemployment is but a few quarters away.

The Congress has failed us and Main Street will now pay the real bill. $700 billion is peanuts compared to what we will soon face. I hope your house is in order because the next few years will be the worst this country has ever faced.

The same idiots who said, 6 months ago, that this crisis would be confined to a few "greedy" homeowners now says it will be confined to a few "greedy" Wall Street tycoons. When not only banks, but cities, insurance companies, etc. start going under because of this credit freeze, we'll be stuck with a bill that will make $700 billion seem like "low money down." Meanwhile, amuse yourselves castigating imagined villains. Hey, it worked in 1929-- for a while.

The same idiots who said, 6 months ago, that this crisis would be confined to a few "greedy" homeowners now says it will be confined to a few "greedy" Wall Street tycoons. When not only banks, but cities, insurance companies, etc. start going under because of this credit freeze, we'll be stuck with a bill that will make $700 billion seem like "low money down." Meanwhile, amuse yourselves castigating imagined villains. Hey, it worked in 1929-- for a while.

If you're trying to get a bi-partisan bill passed, you don't stand up and insult the people you're trying to get to help. Pelosi just couldn't resist bring politics into a "bi-partisan" effort. Maybe that's why the Democrat led Congress has only a 17% approval rating.

I think a large reason 50-70% of Americans were against a bailout is this... Did lawmakers really think they need to protect my ability to drive myself into debt?

I cut up and paid off my credit cards long ago, and have soundly invested my wealth in things that cannot be whisked away by the powerful tides of the market. Now many have not, and this is unfortunate, but not unmendable. I think people have to realize at the end of the day, there is nothing material that cannot be taken away. Invest your time and wealth wisely - in your good health and your own knowledge, your good loving relationships with family, friends, and neighbors... good gardening, handicrafts and thrift skills, and a nice piece of land on which to do it. I was raised by an economist to know that this was the wise thing to do for the long run, and I am thus unafraid of what recession might bring.

I've always known (as they teach in college Economics) that the market was due for a recession. It's cyclic. You can't just feed more money into it, even $700 million, and expect that to stop-gap the bottom of the down cycle. Just prepare for the worst - Smile, laugh, and enjoy life's many rich gifts as you have them now. Go home and hug your spouse or child. (and call your mother.) Kiss them and tell them everything will be just fine. Because, no matter what, it will be (as I always think of it - even if it's not OK, hey, it'll still be OK!).

Hey, Ben, author of this article. There is "consensus" and there is "general opinion", but there is NO "general consensus" (the word general is included in the word consensus which means general opinion).

Not addressing this financial crisis which is affecting the world and putting jobs, savings and retirement accounts at severe risk is idiotic - a little like shooting yourself in the foot to prove a lousy point.

Why does no one mention the fact that the bill gave unprecendented power to paulson to buy/sell finanacial assests at whatever price he deems appropriate and cannot be contested by congress, the president, the goverment or the courts. Paulson would have a blank check for 700billion "At any one time" meaning it's a rolling amount.

Do you people not understand what is happening. You do not have any rights anymore, the Patriot Act gives the president dictoral power, They can bring in the military and establish martial law for any reason under section 1076, then they try to pass this bill. If you don't smarten up soon, you will be reduced to a nation of serfs with no rights and no economy.

I'm a Democratic who is voting for Obama, but I have to say I cringed during Pelosi's speech. She didn't give credit to, or even mention the Republicans once! I'm sorry Madam Speaker, but that was just plain stupid. Have you ever heard of graciouness?

I read the bill and it is completely illegal. Congress has no power to insure anyone and they have no power to buy private companies. Perhaps someone in the House read the Constitution of the United States.

(3) If, at any time after the certification in paragraph (2) has been made, the President transmits to the Congress a written report detailing the plan of the Secretary to exercise the authority under this paragraph, unless there is enacted, within 15 calendar days of such transmission, a joint resolution described in subsection (c), effective upon the expiration of such 15-day period, such authority shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding AT ANY ONE TIME.

** NO ONE MENTIONS THIS **
** AT ANY ONE TIME **

This means the real cost could be infinite, way beyond $700B. Why has no one mentioned this?

Posted by: AT ANY ONE TIME | September 29, 2008 6:16 PM
| Report abuse

Well that pretty much does it. If you want to buy a car, a house, or fund your kids college education in the next several years then you better have a prestine FICO score.

The Congress has sown the seeds of economic ruin. The market has fallen 777 points already. Now watch banks fail one after another. Then the auto makers, then any company that funds themselves with credit, then the company you work for. 20% or higher unemployment is but a few quarters away.

The Congress has failed us and Main Street will now pay the real bill. $700 billion is peanuts compared to what we will soon face. I hope your house is in order because the next few years will be the worst this country has ever faced.

While many Republicans were not happy with the plan, they still got together to build one with the Democrats.

Her Highness Pelosi just couldn't keep her mouth shut and let the vote happen.

Her Highness Pelosi had to make a show and grandstand, bash Bush, bash Republicans, while ignoring her own party's responsibility and duplicity for this mess.

Pelosi didn't need the Republican Party to pass this bill, since passage only required a simple majority....and THEY have the majority. She just needed them for cover if "The Plan" turns out to be a bigger lemon than guestimated.

Public support for any bill like this will only come when the pros and cons are clearly laid out. We are all skeptical, and tired of administration fear mongering and scare tactics designed to muscle through some barely-thought-out scheme with little or no debate. If a bailout really is necessary it can just as well be done after a period of sufficient scrutiny. The markets will rebound after that. All this campaign rhetoric about `wall st. vs main st.' is just that, rhetoric. The banks I drove by on the way home from work had `ask us about our great new mortgage options' signs flashing outside. So it seems as though main st. is not in as dire straits as you doomsdayers are claiming. Tighten your belts and wait it out. In a few months, after the irresponsible firms have collapsed or been bought out, and the clowns responsible have jumped off their respective buildings, everything will get back to normal. A fall in your retirement savings shouldn't cause you to panic; leave the money alone and it will rise again with the markets later. Relax. Capitalism and free market economics work. The strong survive. The weak perish. So let those old dinosaurs on wall st. go extinct and make room for competition and market evolution once again. We will all end up healthier in the end.

Everybody make sure you find out how your Congressman voted and take that into consideration come re-election time. Continue action to support your opinion on this. Sitting in the chair and complaining does nothing but make the wife miserable. :)

700Bn is a lot of money. The current timing stinks - new president and elections in a few weeks.

Government should provide 100Bn fund for functioning banks to borrow from. Individual deposits/savings/checking accounts below $100000 should automatically become US Treasury Bonds, whenever a bank goes bankrupt, or gets acquired. This will solve the liquidity crisis, and also stop massive bank runs.

The present bill seems more like "make hay while the sun shines - retirement scheme" Congressmen who don't agree probably want more of the cut? Doesn't this happen? Why should govt hold bad debt? The present economy can't hold these failed banks anymore. Its analogous to a glass without a bottom - it won't hold any water, no matter how much you pour into it. It seems that a few select banks such as JP Morgan and Citi will benefit, and actually end up buying real assets, using tax payer subsidized bailout, besides creating huge retirement opportunities for those who master minded this.

What kind of an idiot, knowing that she needs political cover from the opposition party to protect her election-vulnerable members from having to vote in favor, takes to the floor and literlly uses the last five minutes before the vote to condemn the very people and party her vote depended upon?

The kind that represents San Francisco, apparently.

Pelosi's comments borught nothing of use to the debate, did nothing to ensure success, provided no positive insight, and had no conceivable result except the possibility of alienating some of her cross-aisle support.

It's almost as if that was the plan... but I don't give her credit for that level of animal cunning.

Remember the famous wink in the movie: Wyatt Earp that ended any peaceful solution at the OK Corral?

Well, I ask you who on a partisanship basis stands to gain the most from an intensified crisis on Wall Street? Pelosi winked with an agenda and Obama has a new slick new ad just hitting the airwaves. Coincidence??? Democrat are not dumb but they still place party ahead of you and me and the country.

We NEED this bailout. Communism is the only hope for the future. ALL companies should be nationalized. Capitalism has failed. It is time to cut all products and services to be supplied by ONE NATIONAL company/ministry EACH. ALL the people should own ALL the companies and services in the country. Everyone is now beginning to understand that communism is the only chance of survival. You will all come running to the red revolution when you see your precious retirment and money evaporate.

The ship isn't leaking - it's nearly sinking. We need to get it sea worthy and we'll all talk about good government later when our feet are dry. What in the world is going on here? Is party line and ideology more important than saving the financial and economic system? Is it more important to say I told you so? And for the comment about "you should have been out of the market..." Hey, like it or not, we're ALL in it - our employers are in it, our 401Ks are in it. What you saw today was not good government - it was economic Darwinism at its finest.

Where are the CEO's who were forced to resign after leading Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into financial ruin? They are key advisors on the Obama campaign. Odd that Obama was one of the largest recipients of contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some even AFTER a bailout of them had been committed. Forget being outraged about having to bail them out, or that no one is calling for these CEO's to go to jail for their misrepresentation of incomes and financial date, can you believe that they took the taxpayer bailout and then turned around and gave it to Obama as a campaign contribution? and now they work for him? Yeah, right, the Democrats will do a MUCH better job. Change in your pocket is all you will have left after Obama gets done.

As early as 1992, alarm bells were going off on the threat Fannie and Freddie posed to our financial system and our economy. Intervention at any point could have staved off today's crisis. But Democrats in Congress stood in the way.

As the president recently said, Democrats have been "resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me . . . to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

No, it wasn't President Bush who said that; it was President Clinton, Democrat, speaking just last week.

Interesting, because it was his administration's relentless focus on multiculturalism that led to looser lending standards and regulatory pressure on banks to make mortgage loans to shaky borrowers.

Freddie and Fannie, backed by an "implicit" taxpayer guarantee, bought hundreds of billions of dollars of those subprime loans.

The mortgage giants, whose executive suites were top-heavy with former Democratic officials (and some Republicans), worked with Wall Street to repackage the bad loans and sell them to investors.

As the housing market continued to fall in 2007, subprime loan portfolios suffered major losses. The crisis was on — though it was 15 years in the making.

Democrats Blocked Reform

Just as Republicans got blamed for Enron, WorldCom and other early-2000s scandals that were actually due to the anything-goes Clinton era, the media are now blaming them for the mortgage meltdown.

After Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers warned Congress in 1999 of the "systemic risk" posed by Fannie and Freddie, Congress held hearings the next year.

But nothing was done. Why? Fannie and Freddie had donated millions to key congressmen and radical groups, ensuring no meaningful changes would take place.

"We manage our political risk with the same intensity that we manage our credit and interest rate risks," Fannie CEO Franklin Raines, a former Clinton official and current Barack Obama adviser, bragged to investors in 1999.

In November 2000, Clinton's HUD hailed "new regulations to provide $2.4 trillion in mortgages for affordable housing for 28.1 million families." It made Fannie and Freddie take part in the biggest federal expansion of housing aid ever.

Soon after taking office, Bush had his hands full with the Clinton recession and 9/11. But by 2003, he proposed what the New York Times called "the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago."

The plan included a new regulator for Fannie and Freddie, one that could boost capital mandates and look at how they managed risk.

Even after regulators in 2003 uncovered a scheme by Fannie and Freddie executives to overstate earnings by $10.6 billion to boost bonuses, Democrats killed reform.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not facing any kind of financial crisis," said Rep. Frank, then-ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.

North Carolina Democrat Melvin Watt accused the White House of "weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing."

In 2005, then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress: "We are placing the total financial system of the future at substantial risk."

McCain Urged Changes

That year, Sen. John McCain, one of three sponsors of a Fannie-Freddie reform bill, said: "If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system and the economy as a whole."

Sen. Harry Reid — now Majority Leader — accused the GOP of trying to "cripple the ability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to carry out their mission of expanding homeownership."

The bill went nowhere.

This year, the media have repeated Democrats' talking points about this being a "Republican" disaster. Well, McCain has repeatedly called for reforming the mortgage giants. The White House has repeatedly warned Congress. This year alone, Bush urged reform 17 times.

Some GOP members are complicit. But Fannie and Freddie were created by Democrats, regulated by Democrats, largely run by Democrats and protected by Democrats.

To misquote Wall Street: Greed is not good. We are Rome and have been Rome for years. We were encouraged to "go shopping" after 9/11 and to spend, spend, spend. Students graduate from college drowning in debt...but if you don't go to college you can't get a decent job. And our aging population, after working all their lives...if you drop dead, that's ok, but have a chronic illness? (obesity side effects anyone?) not covered by insurance put it on a credit card and go live with your children (who have financial problems of their own). Need a reverse mortgage? Have we got a deal for you!....

We were told we're not in a recession, in fact, Unemployment is Low! Economy's Growing!(sure, on a massive credit card).

Then the foreclosures started ....and the bill has come due and the little people who have credit card bills of their own, said: NOW wall st. execs. want MY help??? Are you kidding?
Finally this is their chance to "get even" they are just pissed off at the HUGE income disparity (katrina?) ...

But people just don't get that our jobs depend on credit that comes from the big banks. I think when the market corrects itself some more, Congress will be compelled to act because the masses will THEN be demanding it. Right now, it just doesn't seem "real" ...
But when business inventory truly freezes, credit cards get cancelled, when employers lose sales b/c they can't buy equipment to resale, when ppl get their 401K revised statements...when they get laid off, lose health insurance... it will THEN get through to people.
Hope it's not to late by then or America's 200 yr experiment may fail. Poor Obama, it will be his mess to straighten out, but being calm in a crisis IS HUGELY important.

When I got my Fixed Mortgage, (VA Loan) 8 years ago, My wife and I were doing just fine, Now beineg laid-off tree times since then and my wifes income failing (she's a Hair dresser) we are at the bottom of the barrel. I was middle class now and don't know if this even exeists any more. Let me hear some fat cat tell me about bad loans and I'll smack'em right were it counts!

The bailout Bill had the wrong title and the wrong features it should have limited the borrowing when paybacks were not coming to the banks that did the borrowing! It is not too late to reconstructa bill that would help the average American to stay solvent,rather than have the American economy collapse!

Congress must work together to solve our economies problems before economy goes beyond any solution!

This lets me know that there are 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats worth voting for. They voted no on a badly crafted piece of legislation. Good for them.

What we really need government to do is enact a suspension of the mark-to-market rules: Power to do that was in the bill but the SEC can do it without any Congressional action and the SEC should do it or Congress should force them to do it now. As someone who has worked on Wall Street MBS deals for years (yes, I'll admit it), I can tell you that mark-to-market drove the frenzy upward and is driving the tailspin and liquidity freeze now. We don't need $700 Billion buying the assets in question -- we need the assets to be able to reflect long-term cash-flow values, not snap market numbers. We need reform of the accounting rules: I know, it's not as sexy or headline grabbing but it is the central part of the equation.

Reform mark-to-market, NOW. Yes, there are some other things that can be done to help, but they don't require $700 Billion or even $70 Billion. The problem is not de-regulation, the problem is regulation that is causing awful distortions of asset values.

Even though anyone versed in economics understands that this bailout would ensure that the next crash will be 10x or more worse, it is still the right choice. The only person you have to worry about is yourself. Even if it destroys the next generations future, it will save the baby boomer's retirement, and that is all that matters.

The bill failed because the majority of the representatives acted on behalf of their constituents. If this measure was a referendum it would have failed to pass by 10 times the margin. Anyone that voted for it was only trying to cover their financial a** along with their rich friends because most of the congress and their close friends will loose allot of money when the market tanks. Anyone in the general public that was for this bill is someone that just didn't want to take a loss to their portfolio. So why don't all you people that were for the bailout wake up to the fact that you are so weak and spineless that you would rather have the congress of this great nation plunge the greatest country in the world into socialism just so you don't have to take a loss. You make me sick, there are children who don't have a fit bed to sleep in because of your greed and we are supposed feel sorry for you because you lost billions? No more free lunch for the fat cats! You mean you don't have the back bone to actually work a day in your life? You thought that you were so much smarter than everyone else. ...Look at me I am a brilliant investor. Guess what there are plenty of great business people waiting in the wings to take your place so the little guy has nothing to worry about. There will be plenty of jobs for them and I'm sure you will be able to find one of them. So quit trying to blackmail America by telling them that they will loose everything too because it is not true. The fact is all this depression will do is level the playing field for everyone, tank the price for a barrel of oil so that gas is under $2.00 a gallon again. Home prices will fall to a level where your average person can actually afford to make payments without taking out interest only loans. Actually the future never looked so bright for most people.

I suppose when we are all selling apples and pencils on the street corner, those who voted no will be able to thank the voices who were largely in the dark, and voicing their visceral disdain for the demons on Wall Street.

I too am disgusted by the sheer greed and hubris of the so called banking community. Nothing would please me more than for those who are most responsible for this mess to lead the pack in selling the apples. Alas, they are long gone; their futures secure. We on the other hand have to suck it up and do what is necessary to preserve what is left of our banking system.

Please Congress, knock off the rhetoric, stop playing the blame game and do what is necessary to preserve what our parents bled to give us. We are cheating our children and dishonoring those who came before us.

The vote was a stupid flawed process that has been charactoristic of this Congress. They haven't gotten anything right in the last 8 yrs. Maybe we can return to the Clinton days when Washington left us alone and the economy grew. Not because of lack of oversite but no one had time to change the rule until the last congress of the Clinton era. I have never been so disappointed with an outcome of a vote in my life. Flush my 401k out the door. I don't have a pension. My company didn't match my dollars. Now that is nearly gone. And the people that are praising the defeat of this bill remember that when we meet in the souplines. It won't be the rich and powerful that get hurt it will be you and I. Because our elected official failed to do for us what we cannot do ourselves. When the horse gets out of the barn you need to leave the door open for the horse so that you can get him back inside. This bill wanted to do just that rope the horse and take him back to his stall. Once there we can reinforce the barn.

It's astounding to see how many people really don't believe there is a problem. They really think that Wall Street just needs to suffer. Until this really starts to hurt the average taxpayer in all the ways it certainly will, nothing will be done. It's pretty clear no running-for-office politicians are going to stick their necks out. It's going to have to get much worse first.

That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the--it's got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

I think we got to give to to conservative republicans and holdout dems who went against their leaders to stop this bill.
Media tried again push the bandwagon of sky is falling aka Iraq but people could finally see through this. I guess money talks and people can relate to $$ more than they can to the soldier....

It seems to me that ultimately consumers should share some of the blame in this crisis. We (consumers) as a country have forgotten how to manage our own money, and have allowed large corporations to dictate prices, regardless of demand. The average American has sunk themselves in debt that they can not afford to pay back and this is causing one bank after another to tumble and fail. I do not understand why people are so fast to point the finger at our leadership when our own greed has put us here, if people refused to pay for an overinflated home then the price would drop and we would have avoided a housing market collapse. It is very unfortunate that this country has allowed itself to go from a consumer driven market to a corporate controlled economy, while every american shares in this burden we must ultimately take control as consumers and show the corporate bigwigs that we will not be bullied around. Why do you think that Microsoft is charging $400.00 per license on the office suite? Why is gas so high? It's because we the consumer have yet to take action a boycott these empires and remind them that we are their life blood, not the other way around. It is unfortunate that the average American has lost their backbone and just buys buys buys regardless of the cost... and then open more credit lines when the money runs out. And now we are upset that our economy is faltering? Did we the consumer not let it happen. It seems that in today's society, it is more acceptable to complain after the fact than it is to take action towards preventative measures.

Capitalism has not failed. We have not had a Republic and free market economy in this country for quite some time. Democracy has erroded our country and we will sink into Communism if our Republic is not restored.

As Louis Black said "The government doesn't know what they are doing anymore". I believe it.

Of course the public will be blamed for this mess while the 'Fat Cats' who started this crap will escape in their jets and yachts without a scratch. Just watch.

Our government has become so disarrayed and disjointed that no one really knows who does what to whom. 'Big Goverment' YUK! If you like liberal socialism, stick with this kind of mentality and we'll all be reporting to the Czar soon.

i have mixed feelings about the bailout plan. without it the economy will stall, or worse, fail. main street sees this bill as a bailout of wall street. people can't see that this bill, indirectly, would help them out. it takes a dramatic, in your face, situation before americans realize it affects them. when people aren't able to get cash, or don't get paid at work due to the frozen credit markets then they'll stand up and listen. i'm not a fan of spending tax payer money but the alternative is far worse.

The reason American voters contacted their congress people urging them to reject the bill is that they no longer trust the Bush administration. The long list things that Bush has asked us to excuse out of fear of dire consequences has grown and grown. If we didn't support the war in Iraq Saddam Hussein and "the terrorists" were going to get us with weapons of mass destruction. If we didn't give unlimited power to the executive for warrantless wiretapping, if we didn't pass the patriot act overnight and give up protections we expected to have, terrible things would happen to us. We've become immune to the fear tactics, so when the little boy really sees that wolf, no one pays any attention.

I think we need to legalize marijuana and we'll get rid of all our financial problems. Tax the crap out of it for the government and we'll be back to normal in no time. We have a bunch of clowns running this country and some are a bunch of greedy idots and only care about themselves and screw the rest of the people. Get rid of the big CEO'S who seem to know nothing about running big time business. Have those clowns turn in the muti-million dollar homes, cars and boats. How do they come up with their earnings of a million dollars a month and feel they are worth this amount. the rich doesn't make this country run, us middle income, hard working folks do. I live in California and my American dream went right out the window for any ownership of a house when this housing thing went right up through the roof. Well, the election is coming and if you think your state government officials are voting in again, then do it, if not lets start fresh and vote in the people who will work for us for a change. I vote for? Not Obama, that's for sure.

It's not the governments responsibility to bail out Wall Street or Main Street. The market will correct itself if left alone. Capitalism in its purest sense is live by the sword die by the sword. If you make good business decisions you profit and fail from bad decisions.

Apparently, it seems nobody wants to left holding the bag for their actions. It was just as much the responsibility of the people signing the loan as the people giving the loan. Nowdays most people sign just about any form without reading it. Then act suprised at the consequences of what happens down the road. You mean my loan payment tripled because it was tied to an ARM? I thought the rate was the set payment. Oh Wait! I forgot the read the fine print. The bankers who loaned this money loaned most of it to those with poor credit and work history to begin with. Sounds like a wise decision to make up billions in paper value tied to a housing price that was bloated to begin with when bought. Cheap loans created artificial demand increasing home prices for home that no one would of normally bought. Now that the house of cards has fallen everyone runs to Uncle Sam asking him to bail me out of the mess I made myself.

The government the comes along and say I will see what I can do, but I need you to give me something in return with the Devil's grin and a deal that would make Faust envious.

It is not a question of selling the bailout bill. Some things are so bad and useless, they just cannot be sold. And while the bill's shills may claim it will cost much less than $700B, I am hearing estimates from economists ranging from $1.3T to $5T.

Pelosi is an? Well let me keep them words to myself.
Bush, well he's Bush, my 2 yr old is smarter than he is. And that includes anybody that voted for Bush
Cox and Franks - Need to go, collecting aluminum cans maybe a perfect job for their abilities. Of course with the proper supervision.
The first plan by the Bush people was garbage but, what would you expect from him. The 2nd plan that was actually voted on was a much better plan. Definitely had language protecting tax dollars. Now the children that voted against it because Ms Pelosi hurt their feelings. Are definitely incapable of thinking on their own.
Now the funny part is that most Americans can barely balance a check book never mind understanding a complex financial situation like this.
This stems from greed: Wall Street, businesses and people. I just don't get people, how is it that someone thinks they can afford a house with payments that are above or near 50% of their net pay. 2 yrs ago I was approved for mortgage, no money down $3000/mon payment. I told the mortgage company they were insane and they even attempted to convince me that I could afford it. I told them to pound sand and that the deal was off. Needless to say my wife was pretty upset about it, she wanted her dream home. I told her she needed to adjust her dreams or make a six figure paycheck.
Well it looks like some people didn't have the sense to figure out that they couldn't afford their mortgages, of course the mortgages companies where capitalizing on peoples inability to do simple math and Wall Street was just riding the wave of ignorance.
Now if Washington plays their cards right, they can bail these companies out but, with the stipulation that take on undervalued company stocks equivalent to the amount. Now the removal of bad paper opens the company to issue credit. As the company regains value Washington can then resell the stocks for a profit. If most of the Companies can get out of this hump this just may make enough money to even get us out of the 8yr Bush spending spree.
After this mess I may never vote for a Republican President again!!!! McCain should have definitely beat Bush out but because of Republicans inability to utilize commonsense we ended up with a President that has the IQ of a doorknob

I simply can't believe how ignorant Americans are about the ramifications of the bill not passing in effecting the US economy and on markets around the world. Why do you always miss the point?? You have no clue, this will mean the end of America as an
economic super power and the start of Americas slide into a depression. In a years time lets see if people are still feeling quite so smug when your economy and country lay in ruins!!!!

This bill should die. I'm an Obama supporter who believes my taxes should not go to solve the greed-inducing mistakes of those in the banking industry.

If Congress wants to proceed, let them tax stock trades. Let's tax the transactions that got us into this mess! You don't like that idea? Let's get some other ideas...bring in some economists. In fact, how about getting advice from economists who weren't responsible for causing this mess in the first place???

Wow, there's a novel idea!

Wall Street screwed this up...the money to solve this crisis should come from Wall Street. How about this? Tax the actual greed!

There should be no bail out for anybody. People who couldn't afford expensive homes took out expensive mortgages and found out that they couldn't afford the payment. They loose their homes, so be it. Don't buy a $550 a month BMW when you can only afford a $275 Chevrolet. Banks were poorley managed and gave loans that they shouldn't have approved. Now the banks and finacial houses can fail and the institutions that were properly managed can buy up the assets at bargains rates. This is a bail out for rich people supported by the rich. I'm so glad to see that my Congressional Rep Kirsten Gillibrand said no to this corporate welfare plan. Let the rich get poor and get some perspective on life.

Blaming Nancy Pelosi for the bill not passing is ridiculous! It should have never been designed as a "bail out", instead it should have been presented to the American people as an investment opportunity for taxpayers needed to secure the financial markets along something stating that heads of these financial institutions would be held accountable and the lending institutions would have to be revamped. Then it probably would have passed.

Interesting comments all. However, the fact remains that Wall Street and Main Street are essentially one and the same when it comes to lifes economic realities. Let the Fat Cats on Wall Street go down, they may lose 80 million out of their 100 million net worth. They still have their homes in the Hamptons, house at the beach, yacht and golf membership. Joe six-pack on the other hand, with an economy in severe recession, if not outright depression, stands to lose his job, his house, a good chunk of his retirement and could easily become a drag on State and Federal resources for his existence. It is very easy to say just get out of the way and let the market resolve current valuation issues, in other words, let the chips fall where they may. (We only have to look back to 1929-1934 for one very likely scenario.) If this is allowed to happen and the present situation is not carefully managed, assuming that it can be managed at all, the chips will fall much closer to home then 80% of our population can imagine. On the bright side with a depressed economy gas prices should drop dramatically.

We NEED a recession! It must happen, or else the dollar will COLLAPSE! I am thankful this bill failed. In the short term, it will be difficult to acquire credit or a mortgage. So buckle down, save, and rent an apartment instead of buying a house. If there is one thing no one wants, it's a total collapse in purchasing power due to a strongly devalued dollar! Especially since we have such a massive trade deficit!

It's time for the people to focus on who is really to blame for our Great Country's financial problem's. It is not the Democrats or Republicans even though they are just the pawns of the Bankers and Wall Street who fund their re-election coffers. It is the quasi government banking establishment who are in control of this country's financial future. It is the FEDERAL RESERVE BANK and their stockholders. They are a private bank established to control the United States ability to create money not by the Constitution but, at the whim of a financial elite.

Greenspan, stated in congressional testimony that Wall Street did not need regulations or congressional oversight on the derivative market makers who created the toxic paper that is the sole reason for the financial breakdown right now. The press says that it is sub-prime mortgages the real estate values etc. They may be the initial but, not the sole reason. The derivatives that were created by Wall Street with no transparency and traded secretly on the Over The Counter market among the bankers themselves are in complete meltdown right now. Until Congress addresses the secret derivative
markets and the institutions behind them no manner of Government Bailout intervention will solve our country's financial problems. Wait until J P Morgan Chase's derivatives totalling around 90 TRILLION Dollars starts to unwind. NO BAILOUT OF ANY SIZE WILL SAVE THE WORLD"S FINANCIAL SYSTEM. I fear that that day is coming no matter what kind of bailout program is presented to Congress, the citizens and the world. As Bush senior said a few years ago a NEW WORLD ORDER is Coming.
The only way the United States can remedy this historic crisis is for the politicians of both parties tocome to the realization that it is time to follow our founding father's document. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES and return the issuance and control of our money to Congress and get rid of the elitist banking octopus strangling our great country and all our granchildren's futures.

Cowards!!! Those that voted against the EESA--on both sides of the isle. Instead of taking time to explain the problem and the hoped for solution to their constituants and the perceived bailout of those who chose greed over prudence they chose expediency and therefore hurt their constituancies--those with 401Ks, MM's, loans in process, etc.

JFK's "Profiles in Courage" illustrated a congressman who voted aginst public opinion and went back to his district with the opening line, "i've come home to tell you the truth". He lost the election, but did tell the truth. Unlike our congressman who are afraid of the truth...it might hurt them.

Anytime basic economic principles are thrown by the wayside, there are always SERIOUS consequences. Blame either party if you want, but the underlying concensus on Main Street is that if we have to balance our budgets and live within our means, the Federal Government should do likewise. Destroying basic economic principles just to make political hay is a good way to lose the next election, politicians! Government intervention is seldom benign, and this is a prime example of that. Find the perpetrators and throw them out. Recall elections are needed!

"All hail the coming Redepression!" May the financial and social systems have the cleansing they deserve. May the USA finally have to admit that the Military Industrial Complex and its associated financial institutions, petroleum oligarchies be brought down to a more realistic size that real manufacturing industries can return to North American shores. May we once more see USA and Canadian made products that last 30+ years be the norm. May Big Box stores have to fight with local suppliers for retail dollars and loyalty. May good union jobs return to lift North American families into a realistic middle class. May the "service economy" be returned to its level of importance that it held in the late 1950's and 60's. We've been on a dangerous path as a society since Ronald Reagan's disastrous terms as president and it is time to reverse course. Bring on the pain for 10 years or so and let's stand up and walk TALL again. New alternative energy support, rebuilding of our rail systems, conservation as a watchword of pride! This foolish consumerism with its debt, stress, greed, and stupidity must be erased. Come on America and Canada!

What amazes me is how Pelosi is accusing the House Republicans for partisan voting when 95 of the Democrats population of 235 (can we say over 40%) also voted no. If this was such a partisan vote, there were clearly enough Democrats out of the 95 nay votes to pass the resolution. Sounds like liberal partisan junk talk to me.

This is weasely drivel:
"On the liberal end of the spectrum, most members believe this really does represent a "bailout" of Wall Street and a power grab by the Bush administration, and that the current crisis vindicates their longtime warnings that the financial system was driven by greed and insufficient regulation. For those members, the final package didn't have nearly enough help for struggling homeowners."
A power grab by Bush? Doesn't pass the laugh test. He's the lamest of lame ducks. We now understand that this is not bailing out Wall Street but cleaning up a toxic waste site of the Democrats making through their monstrous mutants FNMA and FHLMC and the Democrats who ran them and the Clinton administration that crammed subprime lending down the banks' throats. It’s also a result of the Democrat orgy known as Sarbanes-Oxley that overreacted to the Enron shenanigans. We know this had nothing to do with Wall Street greed or Gramm-Leach-Bliley (according to former Sec. Rubin) or insufficient regulation. It is the product of the politicization of the financial markets by the collectivists in the Democrat Party like Frank, Dodd and Schumer through the CRA put on steroids by the Clinton administration. We know that Democrat hacks got ridiculously wealthy by creating this cesspool at FNMA/FHLMC (Raines, Johnson, Gorelick, Mudd, etc.). And we have also learned that the top management at Wall Street are neither conservative nor Republicans. Like Hank Paulson the vast majority of guys who left the rubble to return to their homes in the Hamptons support the Democrats and Obama. What do earmarks for mortgagees have to do with this other than to help the Democrats buy a few more votes with taxpayer money?!!! These homeowners never should have been leant to in the first place!!!! Now the collectivist Demos want to compound the damage to the taxpayer by handing out money to people who never had any business buying a home in the first place?
And more drivel that doesn't nearly pass the laugh test:
"But if several House Republicans actually did switch their votes on a momentous piece of legislation just because they were irritated by a speech, what does that say about them? As Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) mockingly characterized the GOP's argument: "Somebody hurt my feelings, so I'm going to punish the country."
More to the point, what does this say about whether or not Speaker Pelosi is even suited to be in a leadership position? What kind of adult goes ballistic ally partisan at a moment like that??? Who is this woman? Is she on drugs or off her meds?
And Barney Frank should be investigated and made to testify under oath about his contribution to this toxic mess. If there was any Republican or Wall Street responsibility for this mess the collectivist leadership of the Demos would be holding hearings forever. Not a single hearing? Why? Because all roads lead back to the monstrous mutant FSEs FNMA and FHLMC - off budget creatures of the LBJ administration - encouraged and protected while they built this disaster by the likes of Dodd, Frank, Schumer and Obama (why did they contribute so much to him in the last two years -- more than anyone else?). These people should be impeached and stripped of their immunity from civil lawsuits.

It is quite obvious that most of the folks commenting here have no idea how this whole thing occurred and are drawing all the wrong conclusions as a result. The crux of the immediate problem is the "mark to the Market" accounting rule which has caused the financial institutions to drastically write down the value of their portfolio well below the actual value of the real estate securing the mortgages, which include good mortgages as well since fannie mae and freddie mac lumped good and bad together in bundles. This became a paper insolvency situation without any relationship to actual reality.

Anybody in Congress that votes for this bailout,votes against the Constitution of the United States. They took an oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. They should be removed from office. Our Constitution does not promote or protect socialism.

One over-looked factor in the public opinion arena is how the Major newspapers such as the NYT and L.A. Times are going to try to scare the American people into goading Congress to eventually pass this bill with HUGE headlines in Tuesday's paper screaming "HOUSE REFUSES BAILOUT" as if the Great Depression II just started. This will further scare investors, resulting in precipitous drop in the DOW - which will put further pressure on congress to act (bailout) - and this is what the newspapers desperately desire.

THE truth is that the NYT and LA TIMES, etc. have a huge financial stake in keeping the housing market inflated because of the resulting Real-estate ad revenue that's keeping print media afloat amongst ever decreasing ad revenues (due to technology shift to the internet). The $700 Billion bailout only serves to keep the housing market inflated, and nothing else.

SanFranGranNan did not need even ONE Republican to pass this awful bill. That she couldn't corral her own comrades speaks volumes about how crappy a bill it was and what an utter failure she is as a leader.

Let the the failing market sell-correct. We'll all be better off in thelong run.

To those whining that "that partisan bickering is costing me my 401(k) and just evaporated my parents retirement money", I say GET A GRIP. Those are/should be LONG TERM investments and todays 7% loss is neglible.

Pearl of Wisdom: "The socialist bailout failed because so many Democrats opposed it. Where was the community organizer, Obama, getting his people in line? Nancy Pelosi can point fingers at Republicans, but Democrats have a majority. They could have passed this bill without a single GOP vote. What does this tell you about the bitter clingers in these Democrat districts? This has huge general election consequences."- Rush Limbaugh

I do not have enough knowledge to form an accurate opinion.. However, the constant criticism of McCain who cosponsored a bill
addressing this meltdown.--
(Federal Housing Regulatory Act Of 2005 urging the Senate to pass the Act which fell to defeat after being blocked by Senate Democrats.)
The fact that Palin's state is one of few with a surplus, her people are getting checks not bills from oil companies.
Some people will never change their mind no matter what. I have, because despite a very bias media some things are just simple commonsense.

The Democrats got us in this mess but it was the Republicans who stood up to Pelosi, Frank and their own President.
I'm just wondering if we're cutting off our nose to spite our face. This was the correct outcome in the free market sense.
95 Dems voted against this thing . If Pelosi could have turned just twelve of them, this thing would have passed. This doesn't say much about her leadership ability. Then again...maybe it says a lot
but not anything good.

As some other responders have suggested, the bailout has failed because Americans are tired of the same old politics as usual in Washington.

Americans are tired of seeing Republicans and Democrats in bed with lobbyists and Wall Street wizards.

Americans are weary of their artificially inflated economy that sees the wealthiest one percent making more money in one year than the vast majority see in their lifetimes.

Americans are tired of being held hostage by the Benankes and Paulsons of this society who now warn of dire unspecified consequences if they and their interests are not bailed out by hard-working taxpayers.

It is time for the bubble to burst.

Let housing prices slump.

Let wages fall if need be.

Let former CEO's sell apples and pencils.

The wild ride must end.

Americans will learn again what constitutes a necessity and what constitutes a Madison Avenue generated "need".

They will learn to stand last year's auto model one more year.

They will learn to make do without a new $2,000 flat screen HD television for their home theater.

When the dust settles, we will be dealing with reality again for the first time in many decades.

As one who is beyond the reach of recession perhaps I shouldn't be so passionate about the truth of the Bush Mafia and its affect on those of you who are "middle" class. However, as one who rose from your position alone and without family connections or money to assist in the startup, I feel compelled to attempt to bring the rest of you up here for it is a much better place to be than waiting for the next shoe to drop in the unemployment line.
I have to admit that I did not rise by talking as a paid hack for the RNC but by practicing the very principals of the democratic party and so one hell of a lot of people came along because they participated in the success. Republicans call it socialism or worse, but to pass around the fruits of hard work well done is, to my way of thinking, share the wealthism. What's wrong with that?
While most of my people are no longer in America due to our disgust with the Bush family and their rule by assassination, both real and character. Everything criminal since before WWII has the Bush name involved in it and 9/11/01 was the last straw for many in the intelligence community. America will only survive if it has the guts to expose past actions and take its lumps in the court of world opinion. After all, you can't tell the world how to act if you can't act that way yourself.
Just a thought but would Bush Sr. ask Osama bin laden to assure a McCain election by another attack. Given history, one just has to ask that question and wait with baited breath for the answer.

Dems had the votes to pass the bill, but lacked the courage to do it w/o repub support. The sight of Frank and Dodd in leadership positions is sickening. In Clinton's time a bill to make housing available to all was pushed thru with Frank and Dodd support, a bill which forced Fanny and Freddy to issue subprime morts with inadequate collateral, backed up by quotas and oversight. Maxine Waters used the phrase 'we were meeting our goals'. Multiculturalism ran riot and we'll all have to pay. Fan and Fred also had dozens of legislators and regulators on their gift list and gave themselves massive bonuses. An oversight group caught them in the act, testified to the Senate, and about 30 Mil of fines had to be paid. No wonder the American people are insensed, and when you're angry, you're not reasonable. I wish I knew what to do, but it's too complicated. Complexity is the mother of corruption, and that's exactly what the congress is, corrupt. That will have to change before we get out of this mess. How many election cycles will that take?

Read your own numbers. The Democrats delivered 140 Yes votes on a crisis that was delivered by the Republican Treasury Sec. and Republican Federal Reserve Chairman under the watch of a two-term Republican President. And despite direct pleas by these Republican leaders to their own party, the House Republican delivered 65 Yes votes, with 133 voting "No." So, Republicans couldn't keep 68% on the reservation. Yet you complain about Democrats.

Before you throw any more stones, why don't you try to get 75 additional Republican votes to match the Democrats' good faith support? Sheesh.

The bail-out was a hand-out, pure and simple. Read what the economists are saying. "Cash for trash" is the most polite they get. The members of the House that weren't taking matters seriously enough were the ones that voted "yes."

Nancy Pelosi is absolutely a failure as speaker and an incredibly partisan buffoon.
She cant control her own people then she pisses off the gop.
Does she really believe the American people are foolish enough to blame it all on the gop.??????

wheter you like it or not, wheter you agree with the bill or not, there is somethng in btw lines here... would you tell me that those 133 republicans just NOW realized that wall street messed up, that we gave a blank check to WS, that we are suppose to control and chek?... where were they all this years... oh yeah voting along with Bush...That is the most hipocritical vote I have ever seen in our democracy history. We should let them know next november that a white hair does not make you hair lighter, that a pardon is not an amnesty. I hope we remember this and the past 8 years before we vote. The Bush administration had its allies in the congress also.

D. Grant Haynes: I agree. The indulgent life needs to end, from the top on down. Both the country and most people have spent themselves into debt over their heads. Never hoed corn. The pity is they will make us all suffer.

this was posted above:
" Dow is down 700 points for all of you who support defeating the rescue plan.

Now what do you propose?"

700 points is less than ten percent. The sky did not fall!!

Are we having "institutions of mass destruction" jammed down our throats for one last plunder? A trillion dollar debt is going to be a heavy burden for the next administration. If it was obvious to everyone on capital hill that the entire economy was going to come to a crashing halt, and send us into a full blown depression, because our president did not get a last minute 700 billion to hand out, he would have gotten it.

This time, there ARE some failing banks. I still don't trust this administrations conclusions. We have already lost far too much to his misguided allusions, malicious or not.

The hubris from the bailout crowd is breathtaking. You know, I'm so glad that the same people who had no problem with "globalization" shipping jobs overseas now have such concern about the state of "Main Street". But you know something? Much of "Main Street" sees this bill for what it is- a piece of garbage handout to Paulson's friends, in the hopes that "they won't do 'it' again". Funny, I thought they weren't going to do 'it' again the LAST time this happened in 2001, when Greenie bailed out his buddies with all those rate cuts! My favorite whiner in this debacle is Ali Velshi on CNN. I bet people with high def can see the sweat beads trickling down his forehead, as he "explains" to us why we MUST have this bailout. See, we're opposed to it, so that must me we just don't understand the way he does! Right before the closing bell, he said something like, "Hey, you want to punish Wall Street, average Joe? Fine, but do it later." NO!!! We do this NOW, Ali! "Later" never comes. I made bad bets a few years ago, and I lost. I didn't complain. Well, ok, I complained- a lot- but I didn't ask anyone to bail me out. I took responsibility for the bad decisions I make. It's time for you and all your "financial expert" friends to do the same!

If ever there was a time to stop solely blaming one party it is now. Some Republicans voted for it, some Democrats voted for it, and some didn't.
I'd rather see us rebuild after a crash, then post pone the pain now only for it to get worse later.

and sss"I hope that all Congress can finally recognize that they represent the American public, NOT the residents of their individual states. Let's truly work together."

are you ignorant, or just plain dumb. Our Representatives come from individual districts in each state, so they DO represent individual districts, not all of America.

I wish we could go back to a smaller government where things are decided on a state level. Then the state economies with good governing will do ok, and the ones with crappy governing will do crappy.

As usual, as I read the blame game for this situation, I realize that probably among those who are old enough to vote in this country there is probably not a single soul who is not to blame for this mess.

We benefited from bad mortgages and now we are paying for it.

So now, I may not be able to get a loan to get a new car. Oh well (as he shrugs his shouders). Life goes on and God is in control.

Those Conservative Republicans and Conservative Democrats who voted against this lousy bill should form a Conservative party right in the House of Reps! This would end the exclusive, two party control of our country once and for all! No need to wait another century for an alternative or rely on Independents, who essentially force politicians to become professional wafflers and fence sitters.
Now is the time to take down both Liberals and Moderates! Let's take our country back from the likes of Goldman Sachs & ACORN! No more subsidized housing, subprime loans or any other assist to the non-productive members of society. A Conservative party formed in situ would be an instant power broker.

"It's possible despite weeks of warnings, and a stock market that is cratering as we speak, that a lot of members still aren't taking any of this seriously enough. And that, ultimately, may be the real reason for today's vote."

The hubris from the bailout crowd is breathtaking. You know, I'm so glad that the same people who had no problem with "globalization" shipping jobs overseas now have such concern about the state of "Main Street". But you know something? Much of "Main Street" sees this bill for what it is- a piece of garbage handout to Paulson's friends, in the hopes that "they won't do 'it' again". Funny, I thought they weren't going to do 'it' again the LAST time this happened in 2001, when Greenie bailed out his buddies with all those rate cuts! My favorite whiner in this debacle is Ali Velshi on CNN. I bet people with high def can see the sweat beads trickling down his forehead, as he "explains" to us why we MUST have this bailout. See, we're opposed to it, so that must me we just don't understand the way he does! Right before the closing bell, he said something like, "Hey, you want to punish Wall Street, average Joe? Fine, but do it later." NO!!! We do this NOW, Ali! "Later" never comes. I made bad bets a few years ago, and I lost. I didn't complain. Well, ok, I complained- a lot- but I didn't ask anyone to bail me out. I took responsibility for the bad decisions I make. It's time for you and all your "financial expert" friends to do the same!

How are people here getting mad at the congress republicans for voting against this bill, and then in the same paragraph saying everything Bush does is crappy, even though he is the one calling for the bill to pass.

I hope they continue to vote against this 700 billion package. Maybe it will take the economy crashing to get back to where we should be.

You can blame the Democratic Congress since they've had the majority for the past two years and have done nothing, you can blame Bush since he's been President for the past eight, but the problem goes back further than both of them. It's been building and growing before the nineties, then with Bush and all those in Congress's reckless spending it accelerated beyond control and is now going to crash. LET THE MARKET CRASH.

This bill failed because for once, the system worked: large parts of the electorate were angry and against it and congressmen and women listened. Wheeling out old Georgie Boy this morning to sell it was the kiss of death. The only thing they could have done worse was to have Cheney speak. All hail republican rule!

I wonder if McCain is going to suspend his campaign again so he can devote his time to crafting a bipartisan solution to the financial crisis. If he does, he can prove to the doubters that he wasn't just grandstanding a few days ago. This just in: McCain participates in political rally today in Ohio.

wait until your children or grandchildren cannot get student loans. wait until you are layed off or your company goes out of business. watch what happens. you are the ones that will be screaming the loudest about why didn't the government do something??

You better get that steak quick. Restaurants, which traditionally operate on slim margins, rely on small business loans to cover expenses in times like these. No liquidity, no small business loans, no steak. Matter of fact, the company you work for might need such a loan to keep your salary. Maybe you should save you money and get a happy meal instead.

At the moment of such a momentous vote, knowing that she couldn't deliver enough of her own caucus AND knowing that a majority of Republicans were on the fence - Nancy Pelosi decides to play partisan politics and continue her practice of sticking one or two needles in the eyes of wavering Republicans.

They didn't want to vote for this bill and her idiotic adding of a third needle in to their eyes was the proverbial straw/needle that made these fence-sitters vote "no" - which is what they wanted to do.

Can't she and her cronies just once attempt to rise above partisan politics? Just once? She couldn't and individuals who were only slightly willing to vote against their conscience went with their mind and heart wanted to do.

This is what happens when one party choses a "San Francisco liberal" as their leader - you lose the center and so much more because you can't see the big picture.

BTW, this is also, deservingly, why the Republicans lost the majority in 2006 - they didn't listen to the people and LOVED sticking it to the opposition.

I have been studying the stories on the "bailout" all day. I support the congress in not passing this bill. I have read many times about the popular constituent opinion being against the bill. I am piqued that the US Congress' website has been down most of the day, and a bit alarmed that the easiest access for constituents to gain information on their representatives is offline... WHY? All other major govt portals are up and running!

you morons criticizing for pelosi not "controlling her people" - she made it clear that the republicans were going to have to carry this bill with a majority. why? because republicans caused this meltdown, starting with the idiotic policies of that idiotic proto-Dubya, Ronald Reagan (piss on his grave) and they have to take ownership of it. It's quite obvious she limited Democratic exposure to the bailout, and why shouldn't she? It wasn't Democratic policies that got us here.

If the bill passed there was a chance that we would not get into a depression. This was the last magic bullet. Now there is very little hope...
We are so happy that it didn't pass!! Hopefully we will remain just as happy when we loose our jobs. Or our investments and 401k bites the dust. Or when we are forced to vacate our homes when we miss our payments.
To all those who were against the bill please read up on credit crisis. Maybe it will open your eyes, and fill your hearts with love for all those who killed the bill so that they get a chance to be re-elected.

Whew! I feel $700B richer today! Feels like the first short of the revolution; you know, the one where we institute trickle-up, instead of trickle-down. If a bailout is necessary to get the economy moving, bail homeowners out in the poorest areas with new low-interest fixed-rate mortgages; provide single-payer health insurance, thereby relieving individuals and businesses of a major expense; and invest in green jobs. We'll have the economy humming again, without the dead weight of Wall Street.

Ben Pershing has his ideological problems backwards. Massive expenditure of tax payers money, we all know that's a democrat thing, tough new regulations, that's not theirs either. Fannie mae under Franklin Rains leadership overstated earings by $10.6 billion, while paying rains and his senior management team bonuses, of tax payers money, ideologically all democrats. Then at a 2004 hearing on regulating Fannie, the regulator was attack by the Democrats, for trying to expose the greed and corruption. Check it out on YOUTUBE, and Barney Frank, should have nothing to say, on why the republicans voted against this RIP-OFF.

The Bail Out Bill Failed Because CNN, CBS, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times have failed miserably to hold a few corrupt Democrats responsible for their past illegal activities. While a handful of corrupt Fannie Mae Officials were bribing an equally corrupt handful of Democratic Congressmen and Senators to basically turn their head and allow Fannie Mae to award HUGE compensation packages to undeserving Fannie Mae Officials, the main stream media turned its head as well. As a consequence, once Fannie Mae ignited the storm and proceeded to melt down our entire economy, the Democrats knew they had a political firestorm on their hands. But in order to cover themselves on this incendiary issue, the Democrats demanded that the Republicans bite the bullet and provide cover for the Democrats and help the Democrats clean up the mess. Had the main stream media been willing to lay the problem at the feet of the Democrats, where it deserved to be, the Democrats would be much less willing to require Republican cover and the protection it afforded. The meltdown was caused by CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, and 2 equally corrupt major newspapers because they let the corrupt Democratic Congressmen and Democratic Senators get off SCOTT FREE. Watch these two videos and see for yourself.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, The Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.

In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority.

They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing.

I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.

No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.

The president can only propose a budget.

He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.

Who is the speaker of the House?

She is the leader of the majority party.

She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want.

If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility.

I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.

When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like 'the economy,' 'inflation' or 'politics' that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

Weird! Why would Republicans blame Pelosi for "changing" their vote? To cover their rears that's why. They obviously were'nt going to vote for the bill anyway so they are having the best of both worlds. Blame Pelosi !! How disgusting can you get and McCain blaming Obama for this is absolutely ridiculous. He is the one who couldn't get the Republicans on board to help the country.

I think everyone in Washington is wringing their hands over EVERYTHING. That is part of what is wrong. It is, at least. comforting that Congress is listening to thier constituents. AND, let there be NO MISTAKE, both Republicans AND Democrats, "little people" are saying NO to the bailout. Yes, we will be effected. But, at least our children will know that we took or own bullet of our own making. I would not choose to approve a bailout that can only create a short term fix for current junkies.
Now that the bailout has been voted down, let's look to solving the problem HOLISTICALLY. Start at the root, then treat the stems and leaves.

I believe Pelosi's arrogant speech was as much to blame as anything else. Pelosi, who heads the House majority democrats, seems to have no brains at all when it comes to negotiations. I heard her halting and simplistic accusatory speech on the radio and I'm convinced this woman's I.Q. is 85 or less. And you must remember that Congress's approval rating under her "leadership" is LESS than the President's!!! So what does that tell you about her?

I don't think that any of us know what the fallout what be, but if the economy crashes because a few GOP congressmen got their wittle feelwings hurt because Nancy Pelosi made a speech...well Im just speechless.

At least they admitted it in the open so all of America can see just how childish their congressional reps can be.

"I think there was a lot of resentment at the way ACORN was villified"

Are you for real?! ACORN is an incredibly corrupt organization, as evidenced by the sheer numbers of fraudulent "voters" it has registered, and the number of its employees behind bars. It is high time for ACORN to be shut down and investigated.

This bill failing is not a victory. It is more along the lines of a devestation. A devestation to the national and global economies. The market will continue to flounder and fail. Banks will continue to go belly-up. And where, once this dust settles and we look at the remains will we, the average american citizen be? Left unable to use our credit cards. Seeing our 401Ks sink and tummel. Unable to get a mortgage, refinance our homes, and put the next generation in college. Jobs will be lost the unemployment rate will skyrocket. I dont like it, but lets face facts - we need Wall Street to work. We need the banks to work. Imagine going to the ATM and not being able to pull YOUR money out? I cant imagine hearing my parents say - our retirement fund isnt there anymore, we have no money for food. We need the political system to actually work FOR US. The failure of this bill is no victory. It is the next step toward that cliff.

The one good thing that may come out of today’s bail-out defeat is that now more constructive discussion is likely to take place to ensure a better bipartisan alternative is adopted. Maybe the focus will change from helping the “big guys out of their pickle” to truly “looking out for Middle Americans”. The majority of Middle America did not want this particular bailout. There was a good percentage of “no” votes from Democratic representatives in addition to the Republican representatives that resulted in a bipartisan effort to defeat this bill. It’s good to know some of our elected representatives on both sides of the aisle are listening to Middle America.

The easy way out would have been to “go along to get along” with those who wanted to pass this bad bill. Rather than take the easy way out, they spoke their conscience and did the hard thing in their effort to represent the constituents they were elected to represent. I wonder how many of the democratic representatives who voted no…did so because of Nancy’s big mouth to spew forth her partisan gaffe? Any Republican who might have voted “yes” but changed to “no” obviously was not convinced “yes” was the way to go anyway.

How dare Pelosi, Reid, Frank et al blame this economic crisis on the Republicans when everyone who doesn’t have their head buried in the sand knows the wheels on this bus started with Democratic leadership back in the 90’s, and with the Democratic majority on the Hill running things the last few years has done nothing to head the disaster off. Even when the looming disaster has been brought up by the Republican’s (Bush in 2003 and McCain in 2005 predicted what happened would happen) and their efforts were shot down.

Pelosi, Reid and Frank have to get voted out. They are an embarrassment to their posts.

"The republican party is filled with people who give more charitably that democrats, who help their neighbors more often, and who pass good values to their children."

Care to offer some info to back that up?

Sure, the Dems have their skeletons, no doubt. However, you might want to google the following list of famous Republicans and review their charitable activities. Do you really want them to pass their values along to your children?

The Bill didn't fail. The conservative Republicans failed. By the time the serious negotiations were done, the bill represented a reasonable investment of taxpayer money. But Washington still has the party of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover to contend with, and they're determined to save capitalism in 2008 the way they did in 1929.

How come everyone keeps saying Main Street won't be able to get loans?

From WaPo Friday:

"...many smaller banks said they were actually benefiting from the problems on Wall Street. Deposits are flowing in as customers flee riskier investments, and well-qualified borrowers are lining up for loans.

"We collect money from local savers, and we lend it in the local community," said William Dunkelberg, chairman of Liberty Bell Bank in Cherry Hill, N.J. "We're doing fine. There are 9,000 financial institutions out there, and most of them are small and most of them are doing fine."

Dunkelberg, a professor of economics at Temple University and chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business, added that a recent survey of that group's members found that only 2 percent said getting a bank loan was the great challenge facing their businesses.

"If you can't get a loan, my advice is to go see your local community bank," Dunkelberg said.

FDIC Chairman says:
-------------------
"On the whole, the commercial banking system in the United States remains well capitalized. This morning's decision was made under extraordinary circumstances with significant consultation among the regulators and Treasury," Bair said. "This action was necessary to maintain confidence in the banking industry given current financial market conditions."

It was a bad bill that was unpopular with everyone except those who would gain power or purse. Let's create more uncertainty until everyone is panicked enough to support even more crony capitalism at the taxpayers expense.

OK FOR YOU MC CAIN SUPPORTERS I WILL END YOUR POINTS OF VIEW EVEN IF I WAS A REPUBLICAN, BY THE WAY I AM INDEPENDENT. JUST READ THIS WIKIPEDIA:
The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators, Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), were accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB).

After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".

All five of the senators involved served out their terms. Only Glenn and McCain ran for re-election, and they were both re-elected.

[edit] Circumstances
See also: Savings and Loan crisis
The U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.[1]

The accompanying slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, the lowest rate since World War II.[2]

The Keating Five scandal was prompted by the activities of one particular savings and loan: Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California. Lincoln's chairman was Charles Keating, who ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln.[3] In the four years since Keating's American Continental Corporation (ACC) had purchased Lincoln in 1984, Lincoln's assets had increased from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion.[4] Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them to make highly risky investments with their depositors' money, a change of which Keating and other savings and loan operators took advantage.[4][5] Savings and loans established connections to many members of Congress, by supplying them with needed funds for campaigns through legal donations.[5] Lincoln's particular investments took the form of buying land, taking equity positions in real estate development projects, and buying high-yield junk bonds.[6]

[edit] Corruption allegations
The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences.

Beginning in 1985, Edwin J. Gray, chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), feared that the savings industry's risky investment practices were exposing the government's insurance funds to huge losses.[6] Gray instituted a rule whereby savings associations could hold no more than ten percent of their assets in "direct investments",[6] and were thus prohibited from taking ownership positions in certain financial entities and instruments.[7] Lincoln had become burdened with bad debt resulting from its past aggressiveness, and by early 1986,[6] its investment practices were being investigated and audited by the FHLBB:[8] in particular, whether it had violated these direct investment rules; Lincoln had directed FDIC-insured accounts into commercial real estate ventures.[4] By the end of 1986, the FHLBB had found that Lincoln had $135 million in unreported losses and had surpassed the regulated direct investments limit by $600 million.[6]

Keating had earlier taken several measures to oppose Gray and the FHLBB, including recruiting a study from then-private economist Alan Greenspan saying that direct investments were not harmful,[6] and getting President Ronald Reagan to make a recess appointment of a Keating ally, Atlanta real estate developer Lee H. Henkel Jr., to an open seat on the FHLBB.[6] But by March 1987, Henkel had resigned, upon news of his having large loans due to Lincoln.[6] Meanwhile, the Senate had changed control from Republican to Democratic during the 1986 Congressional elections, placing several Democratic senators in key positions, and starting in January 1987, Keating's staff was putting pressure on Cranston to remove Gray from any FHLBB discussion regarding Lincoln.[9] The following month, Keating began large-scale contributions into Cranston's project to increase California voter registration.[9] In February 1987, Keating met with Riegle and began contributing to Riegle's 1988 re-election campaign.[10]

It appeared as though the government might seize Lincoln for being insolvent.[7] The investigation was, however, taking a long time.[8] Keating was asking that Lincoln be given a lenient judgment by the FHLBB, so that it could limit its high risk investments and get into the safe (at the time) home mortgage business, thus allowing the business to survive. A letter from audit firm Arthur Young & Co. bolstered Keating's case that the government investigation was taking a long time.[11] Keating now wanted the five senators to intervene with the FHLBB on his behalf.

By March 1987, Riegle was telling Gray that "Some senators out west are very concerned about the way the bank board is regulating Lincoln Savings," adding somewhat ominously, "I think you need to meet with the senators. You'll be getting a call."[10] Keating and DeConcini were asking McCain to travel to San Francisco to meet with regulators regarding Lincoln Savings; McCain refused.[11][7] DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous about interfering.[7] Keating called McCain a "wimp" behind his back, and on March 24, Keating and McCain had a heated, contentious meeting.[11]

On April 2, 1987, a meeting with chairman Gray of the FHLBB was held in DeConcini's Capitol office, with Senators Cranston, Glenn, and McCain also in attendance.[7] The senators requested that no staff be present.[12] DeConcini started the meeting with a mention of "our friend at Lincoln."[7] Gray told the assembled senators that he did not know the particular details of the status of Lincoln Savings and Loan, and that the senators would have to go to the bank regulators in San Francisco that had oversight jurisdiction for the bank. Gray did offer to set up a meeting between those regulators and the senators.[7]

On April 9, 1987, a two-hour meeting[4] with three members of the FHLBB San Francisco branch was held, again in DeConcini's office, to discuss the government's investigation of Lincoln.[11][7] Present were Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and additionally Riegle.[7] The regulators felt that the meeting was very unusual and that they were being pressured by a united front, as the senators presented their reasons for having the meeting.[7] DeConcini began the meeting by saying, "We wanted to meet with you because we have determined that potential actions of yours could injure a constituent."[13] McCain said, "One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them.... I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper." Glenn said, "To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs," while DeConcini said, "What's wrong with this if they're willing to clean up their act? ... It's very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators."[7] The regulators then revealed that Lincoln was under criminal investigation on a variety of serious charges, at which point McCain severed all relations with Keating.[7] Glenn continued to help Keating after that revelation, by setting up a meeting with then-House Majority Leader Jim Wright, which turned out to be the only questionable thing Glenn did throughout the whole affair.[14]

The San Francisco regulators finished their report in May 1987 and recommended that Lincoln be seized by the government due to unsound lending practices.[7][4] Gray, whose time as chair was about to expire, deferred action on the report, saying that his adversarial relationship with Keating would make any action he took seem vindictive, and that instead the incoming chair should take over the decision.[6] Meanwhile Keating filed a lawsuit against the FHLBB, saying it had leaked confidential information about Lincoln.[6] The new FHLBB chair was M. Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating and took no action on the report, saying its evidence was insufficient.[4][7] In September 1987, the Lincoln investigation was removed from the San Francisco group and in May 1988, a new audit of Lincoln began in Washington.[7]

News of the April meetings between the senators and the FHLBB officials first appeared in National Thrift News in September 1987, but was only sporadically covered by the general media for the next year and a half.[15] In early 1988, The Detroit News ran a story on Riegle's participation,[16] which Riegle responded to on Meet the Press by denying an interceding on Lincoln's behalf,[13] before returning Keating's campaign contributions back to him.[16] In spring 1988, the Los Angeles Times ran a short piece in their business section, but their political reporters did not follow up on it; two isolated, inside page mentions by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal similarly failed to develop further.[16] As media critic Howard Kurtz would later write, "the saga of Charles Keating took years to penetrate the national consciousness."[16]

[edit] Failure of Lincoln and investigation of the senators
Lincoln stayed in business; from mid-1987 to April 1989, its assets grew from $3.91 billion to $5.46 billion.[6] During this time, the parent American Continental Corporation was desperate for cash inflow to make up for losses in real estate purchases and projects.[17] Lincoln's branch managers and tellers convinced customers to replace their federally-insured certificates of deposit with higher-yielding bond certificates of American Continental; the customers later said they were never properly informed that the bonds were uninsured and very risky given the state of American Continental's finances.[17] Indeed the regulators had already adjudged the bonds to have no solvent backing.[12] Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair L. William Seidman would later write that Lincoln push to get depositors to switch was "one of the most heartless and cruel frauds in modern memory."[12]

American Continental went bankrupt in April 1989, and Lincoln was seized by the FHLBB on April 14, 1989.[4] More than 21,000 mostly elderly investors lost their life savings. This total came to about $285 million.[citation needed] The federal government was liable for $2 billion to cover Lincoln's losses when it seized the institution.[17]

Keating was hit with a $1.1 billion fraud and racketeering action, filed against him by the regulators.[4] In talking to reporters in April, Keating said, "One question, among many raised in recent weeks, had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so."[18]

In the wake of the Lincoln failure, press attention to the senators began to pick up, with a July 1989 Los Angeles Times article about Cranston's role.[16] With a couple of months, Arizona Republic and Washington Post reporters were investigating McCain's personal relationships with Keating.[16]

On September 25, 1989, several Republicans from Ohio filed an ethics complaint against Glenn, charging that he had improperly intervened on Keating's behalf.[19][20] When the former chairman of the FHLBB went public about all five of the senators' assistance to Keating, that set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The initial charges against the five Senators were made on October 13, 1989 by Common Cause, a public interest group, who asked for the U.S. Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the actions of the senators relative to Lincoln and the contributions received from Keating and whether they violated the rules of the Senate or federal election laws.[21][22][23][20] But the most public attention came from the House Banking Committee, whose new chair Henry B. Gonzalez held 50 hours of hearings into the Lincoln failure and associated events.[16]

By November 1989, the estimated cost of the overall savings and loan crisis had reached $500 billion, and the media's formerly erratic coverage had turned around and become a feeding frenzy.[16][24] The Lincoln matter was getting large-scale press attention and the senators became commonly known as the "Keating Five".[25][26] All the senators denied they had done anything improper in the matter, and said Keating's contributions made no difference to their actions.[19] The senators' initial defense of their actions rested on Keating being one of their constituents; McCain said, "I have done this kind of thing many, many times," and said the Lincoln case was like "helping the little lady who didn't get her Social Security."[25]

[edit] Relationships of senators to Keating
Much of the press attention to the Keating Five focused on the relationships of each of the senators to Keating.

Cranston had received $39,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1986 Senate re-election campaign.[4] Furthermore, Keating had donated some $850,000 to assorted groups founded by Cranston or controlled by him, and another $85,000 to the California Democratic Party.[4] Cranston considered Keating a constituent because Lincoln was based in California.[25]

DeConcini had received about $48,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign.[4] In September 1989, DeConcini stated he would return the money.[4] DeConcini considered Keating a constituent because Keating lived in Arizona; they were also long-time friends.[25]

Glenn had received $34,000 in direct contributions from Keating and his associates for his 1984 presidential nomination campaign, and a political action committee tied to Glenn had received an additional $200,000.[4] Glenn considered Keating a constituent because one of Keating's other business concerns was headquartered in Ohio.[25]

McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981,[11] and McCain was the closest socially to Keating of the five senators.[27] Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona.[25] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.[28] In addition, McCain's wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard Keating's jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.[7][29]

Riegle had received some $76,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign.[4] Riegle later announced in April 1988 he was returning the money.[6] Riegle's constituency connection to Keating was that Keating's Hotel Pontchartrain was located in Michigan.[25]

[edit] Senate Ethics Committee investigation and findings

[edit] History
The Senate Ethics Committee's investigation began on November 17, 1989.[30] It focused on all five senators and subsequently lasted 22 months,[22] with 9 months of active investigation and 7 weeks of hearings.[31] The committee was composed of three Democratic senators, Howell Heflin (chair), David Pryor, and Terry Sanford, and three Republican senators, Warren Rudman (vice chair), Trent Lott, and Jesse Helms.[30] Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett was appointed as special outside counsel to the committee, tasked with conducting the investigation.[30]

Initially the committee investigated in private. On September 10, 1990, Bennett submitted a confidential report, which soon leaked, that recommended that the committee continue its investigation of Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle, but take no action against Glenn and McCain,[21] as there was insufficient evidence to pursue the latter two.[32] Bennett also recommended that public hearings be held.[20]

Speculation that this would be the decision had already taken place, and both Glenn and McCain were frustrated that the long delay in resolving their cases was damaging their reputations.[32] However, there were political implications, as the removal of the two would eliminate the only Republican from the case.[32] The committee's work was further made difficult by there being no specific rule that governed the propriety of members intervening with federal regulators.[32] My mid-October, several Republican senators, including former Ethics Committee chair Ted Stevens, were taking the unusual step of publicly complaining about the Ethics Committee's inaction, saying that it was unfair to Glenn and McCain, that the whole lengthy process was unfair to all five, and that political motives might be behind the delays.[33] Eventually, the committee could not agree on the Bennett recommendation regarding Glenn and McCain:[21] vice chair Rudman agreed with Bennett, chair Heflin did not.[14] On October 23, 1990, the committee decided to keep all five senators in the case, and scheduled public hearings to question them and other witnesses.[21][20] These hearings would take place from November 15 through January 16, 1991.[21]

The committee reported on the other four senators in February 1991, but delayed its final report on Cranston until November 1991.[31] During that period there was partisan-aligned disagreement within the committee over how to treat Cranston, and in August 1991 a special counsel's report was released by Helms.[34] A delay was also caused when Pryor suffered a heart attack in April 1991, and was replaced on the committee by Jeff Bingaman.[35] Bingaman spent months learning the complex materials involved in the matter, only to resign in July due to a conflict of interest.[35] Pryor was reassigned to the committee in August 1991, so as to not further delay its deliberations.[35]

The various committee reports addressed each of the five senators.

[edit] Cranston: reprimanded
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Cranston had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB.[36] He had received more than a million dollars from Keating, had done more arm-twisting than the other Senators on Keating's behalf, and was the only Senator officially rebuked by the Senate in this matter.[37]

Cranston was given the harshest penalty of all five Senators. In November of 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to reprimand Cranston, instead of the more severe measure that was under consideration: censure by the full Senate. Extenuating circumstances that helped to save Cranston from censure were the fact that he was suffering from cancer, and that he had decided to not seek reelection, according to chair Heflin. The Ethics Committee took the unusual step of delivering its reprimand to Cranston during a formal session of the full Senate, with almost all 100 Senators present.[22]

Cranston was not accused of breaking any specific laws or rules, but of violating standards that Heflin said “do not permit official actions to be linked with fund-raising.” The Ethics Committee officially found that Cranston’s conduct had been “improper and repugnant”, deserving of "the fullest, strongest and most severe sanction which the committee has the authority to impose." The sanction was in these words: "the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, on behalf of and in the name of the United States Senate, does hereby strongly and severely reprimand Sen. Alan Cranston.”[22]

After the Senate reprimanded Cranston, he took to the Senate floor to deny key charges against him. In response, vice-chair Rudman charged that Cranston’s response to the reprimand was “arrogant, unrepentant and a smear on this institution," and that Cranston was wrong to imply that everyone does what Cranston had done. Alan Dershowitz, serving as Senator Cranston's attorney, alleged that other Senators had merely been better at “covering their tracks.”[22]

[edit] Riegle and DeConcini: criticized for acting improperly
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Riegle and DeConcini had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB.[36]

DeConcini later charged that McCain had leaked to the press sensitive information about the investigation that came from some of the closed proceedings of the Ethics Committee.[7] McCain denied doing so, although one congressional investigator concluded that McCain had been one of the main leakers during that time.[7]

[edit] Glenn and McCain: cleared of impropriety but criticized for poor judgment
The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of Glenn in the scheme was minimal, and the charges against him were dropped.[36] He was only criticized by the Committee for "poor judgment."[38]

The Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of McCain in the scheme was also minimal, and he too was cleared of all charges against him.[37][36] McCain was criticized by the Committee for exercising "poor judgment" when he met with the federal regulators on Keating's behalf.[7] The report also said that McCain's "actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him....Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific Rule of the United States Senate."[39] On his Keating Five experience, McCain has said: "The appearance of it was wrong. It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."[7]

Regardless of the level of their involvement, both senators were greatly affected by it. McCain would write in 2002 that attending the two April 1987 meetings was "the worst mistake of my life".[40] Glenn has described the Senate Ethics Committee investigation as the low point of his life.[8]

[edit] Reactions
Not everyone was satisfied with the Senate Ethics Committee conclusions. Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, which had initially demanded the investigation, thought the treatment of the senators far too lenient, and said, "The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world."[41] Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, called it a "whitewash".[41] Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said it was a classic case of the government trying to investigate itself, labelling the Senate Ethics Committee "shameless" for having "let four of the infamous Keating Five off with a wrist tap."[42] Margaret Carlson of Time suspected the committee had timed its first report to coincide with the run-up to the Gulf War, minimizing its news impact.[41] One of the San Francisco bank regulators felt that McCain had gotten off too lightly, saying that Keating's business involvement with Cindy McCain was an obvious conflict of interest.[43]

[edit] Aftermath
Keating and Lincoln Savings became convenient symbols for arguments about what had gone wrong in America's financial system and society,[44] and were featured in popular culture references.[45][44] The senators did not escape infamy either.[43] By spring 1992, a deck of playing cards was being marketed, called "The Savings and Loan Scandal", that featured on their face Charles Keating holding up his hand, with images of the five senators portrayed as puppets on his fingers.[44][7]

Polls showed that most Americans believed the actions of the Keating Five were typical of Congress as a whole.[31] Political historian Lewis Gould would later echo this sentiment, as well as Cranston attorney Dershowitz's argument, writing that, “the real problem for the 'Keating Three' who were most involved was that they had been caught.”[5]

Cranston left office in January of 1993, and died in December of 2000. DeConcini and Riegle continued to serve in the Senate until their terms expired, but they did not seek re-election in 1994. DeConcini was appointed by President Bill Clinton in February 1995 to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.[46]

Glenn did choose to run for re-election in 1992, and it was anticipated that he would have some difficulty winning a fourth term in the Senate. However, Glenn handily defeated Lieutenant Governor R. Michael DeWine for one more term in the Senate before retiring in 1999.

After 1999, the only member of the Keating Five remaining in the U.S. Senate was John McCain, who had an easier time gaining re-election in 1992 than he anticipated;[47] he survived the political scandal in part by becoming friendly with the political press.[47] McCain subsequently ran for president in 2000 and became the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. During the 2000s, several retrospective accounts of the controversy reiterated the contention that McCain was included in the investigation primarily so that there would be at least one Republican target.[48][20][24][14] Glenn's inclusion in the investigation has been attributed to Republicans who were angered by the inclusion of McCain,[48] as well as committee members who thought that dropping Glenn (and McCain) would make it look bad for the remaining three Democratic Senators.[20]

The scandal was followed by a number of attempts to adopt campaign finance reform—spearheaded by U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK)—but most attempts died in committee. A weakened reform was passed in 1993. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. Bennett would later write that the Keating Five investigation did make a difference, as members of Congress were afterward far less likely to intercede with federal investigations on behalf of contributers.[

I would love to know what political philosophy or belief justifys letting the market fall 700 points. I just lost thousands in the market for some GD political belief. How can you screw the country like this. I hope everyone that voted no is thrown out on thier ear and chokes on their belief whatever that is that lets the market lose 700points. Ive had it with the house republicans. Our country doesnt make anything, we dont sell anything, we wine, we complain, we get fat. We deserve what we get. Im sick to my stomach with these house republicans and the presidemnt who should go back in his hole and come out somtime in 2010.

Remember the 90's; we had a Democratic president, the market was up, gas was under a $1 a gallon houses were affordable and everyone was working. Oh, let's not forget we actually had a budget surples. God bless George Bush and the Republicans.
Bring back Bill for a 3rd term.

All I can say is thank God for those of BOTH parties who stood up (for those whom elected them)! Tommorrow, the sun will come up, the birds will still chirp, and our lights will still be on....

Now perhaps, Wall Street knows how it feels to be broke like those of us on Main street. They sold their souls in the name of riches, manipulated markets to line their own pockets, sold our jobs to the lowest overseas bidders, and are now willing to sell our children into bondage to pay for their greed!

I love this country with all my heart, but I sincerely believe the pain this will cause is necessary to make us re-evaluate our values and priorities.

The primary objection by Main Street to this "Wall Street Bailout" bill was that it seemingly protected a bunch of thieving fat cats, while Main Street homeowners were losing their homes in large numbers.

After today's market meltdown, I think Main Street is starting to see the bigger picture: doing nothing means the stock market tanks, and with it large portions of Main Street small investors' 401(k)'s, fixed income retirement savings and jobs go down the drain with it.

Hmm. Maybe that "Wall Street Bailout" bill is a Main Street bailout, too!

I was blown over by Pelosi's spectical of a speech. How partisan and politicizing can you get? She actually had Freddie Mac poster boy Barney Frank by her side saying it was all the Republican's fault. Guess what? It was everyone's fault. I would say screw Nancy too and I used to be a democrat.

It's interesting that so many folks considered this a bad bill as did all of those Congressmen who voted against it, yet the GOP House Leadership and McCain say the bill's failure was the fault of Obama and the Democrats. If it was such a bad bill shouldn't they be patting themselves on the back instead of blaming the other side. Or maybe it was a bad bill that was necessary and the feckless members of the House of Representative just don't know how to make hard choices.

Perhaps if the folks crying so loudly for free money to bail out their dumb acts see that it may not come they will act like grown-ups and begin to help themselves.
If bankers make money by loaning money they won't stop for long, that is like hurting yourself.

As much as I'm terrified at what happened today and the consequences it will have, maybe it's the only possible way to straighten things out once and for all.

Today is proof of just how rotten and broken Washington really is. It's easy to blame greedy Fat Cats on Wall Street, but the ones who are responsible for managing and preserving critical systems like the economy are the officials people elect to represent them.

Look at what’s transpired since 2000, and you’ll see a gamut of ideologically misguided and politically self-serving programs, which are the reasons we’re in the current crisis. Mr. Bush and the Republicans have needed vast amounts of money to fund the war in Iraq and tax cuts while the Democrats actively pushed for mortgages and loans to people who couldn't afford them.

Wall Street complied [willingly] by creating a vast array of financial instruments and by funding every imaginable political campaign, keeping everything and everybody hopping along – and winning for themselves vast riches and the privilege to work in unfettered markets with minimal oversight and regulation.

The losers are 'the little people', average Americans with regular jobs and regular incomes, who are the ones who get stuck going off to war, get shoddy health care when they return, and then pay to bail everyone else out when the house of cards comes tumbling down.

Wasn't everything supposed to change after the last election when Republicans were swept out and Democrats gained a majority? Instead, it's been more of the same.

Whatever happened to campaign reform? The amount of money spent to run political campaigns in the US is beyond obscene. Don’t people realize that all that money comes with strings attached and the ones pulling the strings are those who can afford to donate generously? Why are people so surprised and outraged now at the bailing-out of Wall Street? When was the last time any of you looked to see who was funding your Major, your representative, your Senator?

it's obvious that government is tilted in favour of Wall Street, large corporations and well-funded interest groups. When you look at the amounts of money that are needed to be elected for public office,
It doesn't matter who is in power, sooner or later they end up favoring those who funded their political campaigns. The system in Washington and the way the government works is rotten.

What we are seeing today in the economy as reflected in the markets is the full bloom of REAGANOMICS...how does it smell?

This represents 27 years of pure fantasy economics created by a self-serving group of bureaucrats and their wealthy friends.

The economic problems are not George W. as much as it is the whole republican economic agenda since 1980. The ol' Reaganomics, trickle-down theatrics (not a theory) has come to full fruition. Cut taxes and rich people (who don't need the risk) will start or invest in new companies and the money will just trickle (drool or dribble) down like manna from heaven; more jobs, higher salaries, lower prices, better standard of living for all. A very rosy picture indeed.

Major Problem: an economic theory that is childish, unrealistic, and self-serving.

Of course, there is the additional idea of getting government off people's backs by reducing the size of the government and reduce government spending. A flat out lie. Republicans are the worst at arresting government spending or reducing its size but the best at creating loop holes for (ask George W. called them) their base – the selfish one percent at the top. What this really meant: get rid of laws that protected our communities and our nation’s financial markets and institutions for the benefit of a few and at the expense of the many. And let us not forget, privatization, or at least until things go bad and those corporations need bailing out by the tax payers. Hello, Freddie and Fannie, Bear Stearns, AIG.

The shift was from social services (like education, Medicare, mental institutions for the mentally ill, etc.) to giving the money to their political friends and donors (see Katina gifts to corporations who never spent a dime in New Orleans or those private contractors in Iraq -- big or small). So the rich get richer by taking tax payer money and gifting it to, for recent examples, Halliburton or Blackwater USA et al. Corporate welfare replaced support for the needy, who got dump into our streets and neighborhoods were they sleep, eat out of garbage cans, and get beatings by middleclass brats, and the elderly who suffer in poverty under the unfair and unnecessary burden of medical costs while access to less expense medicine is block by uncaring politicians who are bought by pharmaceutical lobbyists.

Getting the government off our backs meant reducing regulations that protect our communities from pollution, exploitation and destruction so corporations can more easily make profits with worrying about the consequences of their actions. Polluted rivers (the Mississippi is destroyed with the highest cancer rates in the US for communities on its banks), oceans polluted (California coast is so polluted shell fish can no longer be eaten from Oregon and Mexico), landscapes everywhere totally ruined by mining interests (hello, Sen. Byrd, good bye West Virginia mountains, the Rocky Mountains, etc.). Any laws designed to protect and preserve what God created is shot down by so-called Christian’s more interested in the pocket books than God holy creation. The American political system is considered holy but what he created is not in some twisted interpretation of scripture that serves the interest of truly godless self-seekers, i.e., evangelicals (evil angels= antichrist).

And speak of good bye: globalization sold to the American people so our companies could stay competitive against those bad Japanese (1980s devils) who were going to take over the world. So good bye jobs, but globalization will keep prices lower on our goods (if you have money to buy them) even though they won't be made here.

The recent inflation (manipulate and dishonest since reprogrammed in 1980s and 1990s so it always seems low despite price gains of more that 10% per year since 1987 and is therefore, in truth, totally inaccurate and misleading -- price adjusted pay raises or social security checks, well, we won't have any of that) is not due to supply and demand. It is the result of these massive pools of capital that were created by an inadequate tax structure that rewards the rich for nothing more than being rich and that continuously seek investment returns and, in the process, jack up prices through the roof. For the middle-class family real wages haven’t increased since 1979!

In 1979 the American worker's average hourly wage was equal to $15.91 (adjusted for inflation in 2001 dollars). By 1989 it had reached only $16.63/hour. That's a gain of only 7 cents a year for the entire Reagan decade.

But wait. Things get worse! By 1995 it had risen to only $16.71, or virtually no gain whatsoever over the 6 years between 1989 and 1995. During the great 'boom years' between 1995 and 2000 it rose briefly to $18.33 per hour. In other words, from 1979 to 2000, even before the most recent Bush recession, after more than two decades the American worker's average wages increased on average only 11.5 cents per hour per year! With nearly all of that coming in the five so-called 'boom' years of 1995-2000, and most of that lost once again in the last three years. And that includes for all workers, even those with college degrees.

The picture is worse for workers who had no college degree. That's more than 100 million workers, or 72.1% of the workforce. For them there was no 'boom of 1995-2000' whatsoever. Their average real hourly wages were less at the end of 2000 than they were in 1979! And since 2000 their wages have continued to slide further.

Now the killer we are experiencing today: massive pools of capital created by tax rates that are too low for high income earners, that is, people who make over a million per year. These massive pools of capital constantly look for places to invest. Hence, 1990s stock market over valued from 1994 to 2000 when it collapsed; currency markets manipulated and finally collapsed 1997; now the real estate market pushed to unrealistic levels by the massive pools of cash seeking out new investments creates too many houses and the offering them to anyone regardless of financial means to keep the game alive; energy prices have been pushed by the same game (Enron's traders recall, recent oil as well as other commodity prices).

And to help all this out, let's allow Wall St. (eliminate regulations in place since the 1930s) to create all sorts of hybrid products (credit default swaps, e.g.) that even the professionals don't understand and allow mergers of institutions that eventually participate the collapse of (at best jeopardize) the whole financial system world-wide.

And Greenspan was the most corrupt instrument of this process, the most corrupt Fed of all time; an owner of his own Wall St. firm running the Fed, in charge of regulating our country's finances and markets?

It's insane. Hi, Ronnie and thanks; the stench of your self-serving individualism with its heart in "country be damned; greed is good; show me the money" has come to full bloom. PeeYou.

The whole program is out of whack. We need to rethink the whole structure.

(1) set at flat tax rate of 20% on total individual income under $1,000,000 and 50% on every income dollar about the first $1,000,000 except for corporations which keep the 20% flat rate. This will clean up the whole mess we are in now and provide money for a national health program and quality public education through four years of college in a state type system. Private schools can run on their own with no federal money allowed if they want to be private.

(2) eliminate all deductions. Everyone pays as outlined above for the benefit of the whole country.

(3) eliminate lobbyist ability to buy politicians. No gifts, no contributions, No exceptions. Talk is fine, but no trips, no planes, no drinks. Period. If caught even taking a cocktail, you will be immediately removed from office. Money does not equal free speech, Judge Rehnquist. So go screw yourself you old dead fart. Any private or public company that hires a politian coming out of a government position, will not be able to bid on government contracts for 10 years.
(4) corporations cannot make any kind of contribution to politician for any reason. They don't have voting rights and are not individuals with any constitutional rights.

(5) amend the constitution so that the legislature at the federal and state levels must include a broader representation of the population: one quarter professionals like lawyers and doctors; one quarter business owners, small to large; one quarter academics from elementary schools to universities; one quarter working people from factory to farms. Maximum length of service is two terms…no more eternal premadonna’s sitting in political positions long past the effectiveness: entrenched party bureaucrats who regard themselves as the sole source of all good and truth for the country, not!

(6) stop Wall St.’s control over the economy; the tail is wagging the dog and it must stop. No more hybrid products just straight stocks and bonds and mortgages. Banks, etc., make loans and they stay on their own books; they are not stripped, packaged and resold to others. No more Federal Reserve Chairmen allowed to serve if they come from Wall St. The must be appointed from university positions and have Phd.s in economics or finance. No more Wall Street insiders with self-serving approaches to running the SEC or Federal Reserve.

I didn't think that I could hear something as ridiculous as Pelosi's speech, but apparently Chris Farley here, who must live in a van down by the river, has got her topped. This is the most mentally-challenged stupidity I've heard all day:

This has nothing to do with being able to sell this. For once the representatives might actually be listening to their consitutents and not to the special interest groups that bought their soul.

Many of us who are against this are already living out of our cars and eating at homeless shelters so what more can we lose?

I cannot support any Rescue package until there is a recognition that Americans do not have a right to cheap and easy credit. There is not one Constitutional Amendment nor is it in the Bill Of Rights that American Businesses and Citizens have the right to cheap and easy credit.

Cheap and easy credit is what got us into these dire straits and this bill was just another indication that the Bush administration and many in Congress believe that the party should continue AS-Is. The only sacrifice was CEO golden parachutes.

Businesses that need "payday" loans need to be out of business. If you are operating on that thin a margin, you are not a good business person and I don't care where you bought your pedigree from.

I resent being held hostage and threatened by my government. Today's vote in the House may indicate some representatives wish to quell the domestic problems (protests that left unchecked will become violent) rather than fuel Wall Street's addiction to cheap easy credit.

I can't believe that some people are still supporting this BAILOUT. That's right, it's a BAILOUT not a "rescue plan". Our market is in dire need of a correction. Life as it has been for the last few years--banks being too lax with credit, people spending far beyond their means, investment firms making bad, extremely RISKY investments--is simply unsustainable. The market has to come crashing down at some point, and a $700 billion bailout that comes packaged with giving the Treasury Department dictatorial powers will not stop the pain; it will only prolong it. No reason to waste our money or let the Bush administration make a mockery of our Constitution some more for a measure that will fail to prevent the inevitable.

Well, whoever voted for those politicians into office all those years ago to support the Community Reivestment Act, Clinton Adm. for pushing for lax credit requirements for mortgage lending,Barney Frank, Dodd, the blockers to regulating the bloating Freddie Mac and Freddie Mae mess, etc. now deserve what they get. Reap what you sow. Don't whine about our falling 401K and the financial crisis. We voted them in.

Some congressmen listened to their constituents and killed the bill accordingly. The voters were calling and faxing at a 10 to 1 ratio against. 90% of the country can't be wrong even when 49.6% of the House can. My rep voted for it, and I'm voting Libertarian to toss that idiot out of office.

It failed because the American people will no longer allow themselves to be manipulated by fear-mongering politicians who tell us the sky will fall if we don't give them unconstitutional powers!

This bill would only have saved a few fat cats at the expense of everyone else. Are you prepared to pay $10/gal for gas in order to allow the CRIMINALS who caused this problem to "stabilize the credit markets"? And if you don't see the connection, you need to learn about how trillions of dollars in deficit spending and Federal Reserve "liquidity injections" cause hyperinflation. Ramping up the printing presses was the part of their plan that wasn't mentioned in this bill.

I don't think folks understand. We're not talking about a bunch of fat cats suffering. We're talking about YOUR employer laying off people because they can't get a loan. We're talking about YOUR customers not buying from you because they can't get a loan. You need to sell your house to move to another state after you get laid off? Good luck.

These fat cats on wall street won't feel this pain. They'll make due with their gold and off shore accounts. Those of us who need our jobs, customers or retirement money are those who will suffer.

I'm not saying this bail out is great. But what I don't see is any other substantial plan being put forward. "200 economist think this plan is a bad idea"? Is that the economist in the private sector too or just the tenured ones? Well you'd think they'd have come up with a better solution and sent it on to the idjits in congress.

Come on folks either vote for it or offer something brilliant, because now is not the time for spite.

Michele in Michigan (where things already su*# and it's looking like it's going to get worse)

Peolosi trying to blame republicans for this mess is exactly why the people were against the bill. There is no accountability in Washington and we no longer trust these fools. No way they get another dime. Now hopefully the press does their job and makes these people famous, so we can vote them out.

Mr. Pershing: I'm pretty sure that your eyes are crossed in the photo next to your name.

Here's one of my problems with your article in specific, and economic analysis in general. I really do think that it's time to move past the partisanship and create a fix that looks out for both the consumers and the credit industry. But if we don't keep the flow of credit moving and relatively unrestricted, this country will be in trouble real fast. But your article smacks of partisanship.

(1) Poor Salemanship: You state that the Bush Administration failed to "sell" this bill. But Speaker Pelosi practically bragged that she had gotten a much better and different deal than the one offered by the Admin. No mention of that.

(2) Vunerables Scared: You assert that anyone voting against the measure did so for job security (which actually contradicts your later assertion that it was done on principle). But it's much too early to see what will result from this vote. Isn't just as easy to envision people using this against the no-voters in the re-election campaigns? Pretty short sighted of you not to see this.

(3) No Center of Gravity: You call out Bush as being a lame duck with a low approval, but fail to mention Pelosi obvious failure to get her own party to support the bill (you also neglect that Nancy's Congress has lower approval ratings). Your baseless insinuation that congressional members were bribed is uncalled for and makes your article seem bitter and sophomoric.

(4) Ideology: You allege that liberals that didn't vote for the bill were looking out for struggling homeowners, while, at the same time, accusing no-voting repubs of having no responsibility to govern and voting based on political self-interest (how exactly is that related to Ideology???).

(5) Partisanship: Under an ironic title, you assert that any republicans not voting for the bill aren't taking the situation serious and approvingly cite the one and (thankfully) only Barney Frank. Uh . . . what about the 95 democrats that voted against the bill? D'ya think they're partisan as well?

Enough with the blame game and spinning. I'm sick of the two-year-long campaigning by politicians and the members of the press going along as willing accomplices. Politicians: fix the problem; Reporters: report!

What many here don't realize is that most companies need credit to function and get loans from banks to grow their business. So if there is no credit, products don't get developed or marketed, no investments are made into buildings or operating systems, no new hires are made, and soon, many employees are let go because there is little cash to pay their salaries. The "their" here means you and I. I have workled long and hard at my career and don't savor the idea of being unemployed. I am sure many of you don't either. So we need to help right this ship, all hands on deck.

Also...the government can issue warrants to the banks for future profits, essentially taxing them. That was something I believe was a part of the plan, as was a rejection of the "golden parachutes". Part of the problem is the televised news media (read Fox news, ABC news and all the other big networks) did't really explain this package to the people. And Bush sure as hell didn't.
But if the banks fail, your businesses will surely fail, for there is no capital to infuse them with.

What happened in 1929 will be nothing compared to what will happen now if our banks fail. Back then our country manufactured and exported stuff. Now we don't. Our worldwide creditors will but all of our remaining industries at firesale prices. Do you want this?

I want to see this go through, because we cannot afford to make 1929 look like President's day weekend and the bank just happens to be closed. Afterwards, we can sort out what can be done so this never happens again. AND we can also go after the mortgage companies that sold this crap in the first place. But sadly, they cannot be tried or convicted of anything but greed.

I beg of all of you to calm down and asl your representative to vote "yes" for your kids. Because if this fails, your kids and mine, and even your grandkids will be deprived of their chance at the American dream. Don't let that happen. Make your Congressman vote yes. Please.

I wonder how many people commenting, both for and against, this legislation actually read the 110-page brief that was posted in the various news outlets online? I admit it's a hard read, but a necessary one IF you want to understand what it was considering. Although not too many people have commented one way or the other regarding any of the statutes in the legislation. I admit I've only had the time to read about 1/4 of it. I'm reserving judgement until I've completed it otherwise I'd be uninformed.

Look....the public wouldn't pass a bill to BAILOUT Mother Teressa. They don't even want to BAILOUT themselves.

For God Sakes, you can't call it a BAILOUT without fully and completely assuring people that they are bailing out themselves. And then, it isn't a BAILOUT but a credit market intervention.

Further, they could have pointed out that EVERY NATION ON EARTH intervenes in markets in significant and self interested ways. Including our own FED. So, do we want to see a deflationary spiral with the awful collateral damage or maybe get started before things collapse?

It was the BAILOUT label that did it in. That plus McCain. They almost had it done before a weekend of the word BAILOUT on the screen constantly.

Will someone please tell me what political philosophy says let the stock market lose 700 poiints. What is that?. Its insane . Its not a belief its insanity. I just lost 18 thousand dollars it took me 8 years to save . Who do talk to about getting it back. and when? Ive thrown up twice in the past half hour. Im sure Im not hthe onlyy one.; How friggin dare they pull this sh--on the american people. I hope those who voted no suffer a horrible malady. God forgive me. . 72 yrs old , cnacer 4 times, Palin president. Im moving to New Zealand. . I hope Joe Biden eats Sarahs lunch in Thursdays debate.I hope he calls her names ,what the heck its a free country.Ill still vote for him ..Twice if I can figure out how to if only to offset the racist vote Im sure is at work. GW go back in in your hole. I hope the house republicans choke on their diminished portfolios. I think the house republicans are insane.

Many of the comments here sound like my teenagers talking to me. I do not see why the failure of this bill has to result in breadlines across the US. The bill obviously has to go back for more work, only this time lets look at more than one idea for fixing this mess many of us could see coming. Part of the reason this has happened is that the current economic model took on quasi-religious overtones, and no dissent was tolerated.

I am proud of the American people for standing up this week, for debating as real adults, and for proposing good ideas to go forward.

''The democrats control the house and senate. They have enough votes to pass this without republicans. And Bush would sign it. So the blame for the failure is totally on the democrats.""

And how stupid would democrats be to fall for that! I think there is a 50:50 chance that the whole thing is a setup, once the Democrats act, the mess will be blamed on them, by the party that is "the best" at passing blame and whining! While the democrats take the crisis seriously enough to work with the worst President in history (a republican), the scheming swift boat Rovians see a way to play politics with the crisis, and actually pin what is more their mess than anyone on the Democrats! I

Already DEMOCRATS are being blamed for
1) Freddie and Fanny, when it is painfully obvious that both parties share the blame, and that Fanny and Freddie made the loans that went toxic BEFORE democrats took control of congress. That;s right, for those who can't do simple math: the toxic loans take from 3-5 years to hit "readjust interest rate", and if you look at forclosing loans, the origination peaks about 2003-2005. REPUBLICAN CONGRESS, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT
2) loans to "minorities, and the ACORN business. This is classic republican sleaze at it's best, blame it on the poor! Studies on loans to hispanic women, for instance, show that they are far more likely to get bad or subprime loans, but that the kind of loans they get are independent of income and qualifications. So, while it is true that many foreclosures involve minorities, it is also true that minority women in particular got screwed when they got the loan to begin with!

That is John McCain's path to the white house. Get the democrats to support Bush, and then hang the Bush tag on Obama, instead of on himself, where it so justly belongs! I'm sure that many republican strategists are literally wetting themselves with excitement to think they might pull this off. Never mind that our economy is melting down. That my friends, is Republican and War hero McCain's "country first". "Country fail" rather than lose the white house!

This bill should not pass because it is unnecessary. There is a lot of money out there waiting to see how low these assets will go before they buy them up. Waiting to see what ridiculous price Paulsen will pay so that the banks can buy them off him later at an even lower price, at a real loss to the taxpayers. If Washington really understood money, this wouldn't have happened in the first place. Why trust them now? The taxpayers don't want it - why does ANYONE in Congress vote for it?

DO THIS FIRST, THEN THE REST CAN FOLLOW … AND YOU MIGHT GET THE SUPPORT YOU NEED TO MOVE FORWARD

IN 60 DAYS ALL THE LOANS IN TROUBLE CAN BE FIXED

1. Stop all foreclosure actions nationwide for a period of three months
2. All existing adjustable mortgages, both owner and non-owner occupied, whether in foreclosure or not, shall be eligible on a one time basis for immediate modification to a 30 year fixed rate loan as follows:
a. Loan amount to be modified to roll in all amounts the Borrower is in arrears, including foreclosure penalties and fees
b. Interest rate to be 4.75% for owner-occupied
c. Interest rate to be 5.0% for non-owner-occupied
d. An incentive interest rate reduction of .25% to be given if the Borrower pays off all amounts in arrears or reduces their loan balance by 5% of its original amount, whichever is less
3. Change all applicable tax laws to permit a one time retirement fund withdrawal to accomplish the pay-down
4. Homeowners must take action to “Opt-in” to the program
a. Borrowers who have stopped making payments MUST make a payment of at least one-half of their pre-foreclosure payment to the lender or loan service center, regardless of how long since the last payment, which the lender MUST accept. This payment will provide constructive notice to the lender of the borrower’s interest in resolving the issues.
b. Those who are current on payments shall provide written notice of their intent to participate
c. For loans in arrears or foreclosure, as long as the borrower keeps all payments current the foreclosure process shall remain on hold.
d. If there are no late loan payments for 2 years, the foreclosure process shall be dismissed AND THE CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES WILL BE NOTIFIED THAT THE BORROWER IS PAYING AS AGREED
e. If the loan is not kept current the foreclosure process, at the lender’s option, may be re-started at the point at which it was placed on hold.
5. Within 60 days the Lenders will receive a NET INFLUX OF CASH THROUGH PAYDOWN OF LOANS / AND BACK PAYMENTS of probably over THREE PERCENT (3%) of the outstanding loan amounts (approximately $39,000,000,000) from loans currently generating nothing… and that doesn’t count any funds from those whose loans have not reset yet (potentially $300,000,000,000).
6. Within 60 days the modifications can be in place and REGULAR, FULLY AMORTIZED PAYMENTS RE-ESTABLISHED for probably over 90% of those loans currently in trouble (approximately $6.6 billion per month) (again, the lenders are receiving nothing now)
7. Cost to Taxpayers close to $0000

I've read a lot of these postings. Seems like a lot hot air blowing around criticizing the House and Senate the current president... you did forget about the previous president who pressured Fannie Mae to make mortgages available to poor credit risk borrowers. Congress in the early 90's pushing to make home ownership affordable to the low to moderate income borrower's who credit profile wasn't that of moderate to higher income borrowers. I've been in the mortgage industry for nearly 30 years. I saw this coming and knew something bad was going to happen. I was not happy making loans to poor credit risks. And those poor credit risk borrower's span the social economic classes. Fannie and Freddie with the help of the previous president and government allowed people 100% financing, poor credit, debt ratios over 65% and no reserves after closing to obtain mortgages. Add sub prime loans to the mix...loan to people that Fannie and Freddie's "sub prime" program wouldn't touch. then add stated income, no doc, option ARM loans to the mix and you had a disaster waiting to happen. I was told by a sale person that we would have made many mortgages without 100% financing and high debt to income ratio's....because people can't save today. That may be partly true, but the industry made it way too easy NOT to save because you didn't have to. It was given to you on a silver platter. Too many people were riding the tide of property appreciation and running up their debt. Then running to the mortgage company to refinance themselves out of it and using up their equity. I witnessed borrower's doing this two to three times in a period of 2 to 5 years. They were also living on over time and two incomes. When those disappear, no matter how much equity you have you can't afford another mortgage on less income. The blame for this whole mess runs from the borrower right up to Wall Street...greed and stupidity on everyone who participated.
My question is...If the bail out plan isn't enough. What is? I haven't seen anyone with an alternative other than let this whole mess work itself out. I don't have an alternative. This mess is too complicated.

Charming. Millions of taxpayers presume to know what the solution is better than the former chairman of Goldman Sachs, the one Wall Street company that did NOT go gaga over mortgage-backed securities. What have any of these people ever managed? How many of these Monday morning quarterbacks can balance a checkbook or add 3 numbers in their head? The Revenge of the Idiots has gone far enough.

Posted by: Gary W | September 29, 2008 6:16 PM

Gary,

Paulson said in March of 2007 that the fallout from the subprime mortgages was largely contained. In retrospect this may have been an incorrect assessment. Sometimes 1 and 1 don't make 2.

gideon says:
"This bill should not pass because it is unnecessary. There is a lot of money out there waiting to see how low these assets will go before they buy them up."

Gideon the gambler! It feels SOOO good to say to hell with Bush and Paulson, don't help those bums out! But the problem is, while there are 150 or whatever economists that say the bill is useless, there are as many that say it is desperately needed! For those of us not really qualified to understand the whole crisis, or it's potential consequences, it is stupid to loudly declare what is and isn't the right thing to do. It seems we are on a knife edge, and the fact is that "leadership" is not lacking, only certainty. Someone has to be trusted to make a call, and it should be those with the best knowedge. The risk of doing nothing may be far worse than the risk of doing somehting that was , in the end, not necessary. Does "gideon" and the other experts here really know enough to say? I doubt it!

The public has prevented the passage of this bill by saying in one loud voice (to a congress about to be up for election) DON'T DO IT! Unfortunately, the public as a whole is decidedly unqualified to "make this call".

We (the public) have directly caused the gridlock this time around. Perhaps we deserve what we have in congress and the White House eh?

Bailout option is 100% wrong to this problem.
Bailout is provided to convects, we havent yet found the problem then why are we talking about bailout.

People think that $700 bln will save the financial crisis but it would still pull down, its not a sinking boat its an quick sand it will take the $700 bln and the industry down.

$700 bln is not a small amount.
Here are the numbers the total federal budget $2.4 trillion. FY2007 on-budget receipts were $1.7 trillion. FY2007 off-budget receipts were $608 billion
• $1.1 trillion – Individual income tax
• $370.2 billion – Corporate income tax
With the $700 billion bailout plan and with the above numbers are we trying to say that we are waying off the Corporate income tax for the next 2 years ?
This $700 Billion is just a tip of the iceburg, you should understand this is just a litmus test if you cannot find your bugs here going forward in the dog and the bone test you will get the actual numbers that could be very scarry.
Here is another example:: The total damage from Katrina is estimated at $81.2 billion (2005 U.S. dollars), we are in a position to estimate the natural disaster damage but unable to predict the numbers for a small financial industry? Imagine that if the Disasterous hurricane costed $81 billion and this industry that we created has already shows 10 times that of the Hurricane.
None of the leaders came forward when this natural disaster occurred killing several people with a relief plan, now that ever politician comes forward to help the crisis, I am sure they are not tying to kill the problem but trying to grow it further by helping it with the bailout.

Herbert Hoover rides again! The Republican ideologues fail to compromise once again to save the country. McCain failed miserably on all fronts---leading, bipartisanship, economic solutions.

Republicans can grouse on many fronts but the key programs and deregulation all happened while Bush was president and Republicans controlled Congress---the SEC stopped the key self-monitoring program for investment banks--last week. Paulson was a key advocate at Goldman Sachs.

"If the Democrats had let the 2005 legislation come to a vote, the huge growth in the subprime and Alt-A loan portfolios of Fannie and Freddie could not have occurred, and the scale of the financial meltdown would have been substantially less. The same politicians who today decry the lack of intervention to stop excess risk taking in 2005-2006 were the ones who blocked the only legislative effort that could have stopped it."
Professor CHARLES W. CALOMIRIS, Columbia Business School.

"Fannie and Freddie with the help of the previous president and government allowed people 100% financing, poor credit, debt ratios over 65% and no reserves after closing to obtain mortgages. Add sub prime loans to the mix...loan to people that Fannie and Freddie's "sub prime" program wouldn't touch. then add stated income, no doc, option ARM loans to the mix and you had a disaster waiting to happen."

Yet ANOTHER partisan trying to blame a Democrat (Clinton), because he signed a bill in the 90's that was 100% republican written, underwritten, lobbyist bought and paid for! Sure, give Bill a share of the blame, but let's get it straight- the reforms that allowed these loans had precious little to do with helping the poor! It was primarily Republican backed "less government interference to free up the free market to work". The relaxed regulations and bundling of loans as securities has a lot to do with it, not just Freddie and Fanny!

Obviously, the realtor above who wrote that paragraph knows this, it is just more convenient to always blame liberals, their socialistic tendencies to help "minorities (read blacks), and their so-called tax and spend policies. Who did all the spending between 1993 and 2007? A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS!

I wish they would quit telling us the sky will fall if we don't hand Treasury a blank check. The world will not end. Businesses (who didn't make foolish gambles) will still borrow money; lenders will step up to lend it.

If Wall Street is panicking, it's because Congress can't make up its mind what to do. Uncertainty is what is causing jittery markets. Once Congress makes up its mind markets will settle into the new reality and get on with life.

In reality the best thing Congress could do is get out of the way. No bail-out. No Sarbanes-Oxley for the financial markets. Let the market do what it does best - weed out the foolish businesses and clear a path for responsible businesses.

It is downright sin to make the vast majority of us who made responsible decisions pay the freight for greedy investors who gambled and lost.

Businesses that made bad decisions should suffer the consequences - no matter how big they are. The real assets will still be there. Houses and real estate will not disappear into the ether.

I guarantee you the cost of Congress doing nothing will be much cheaper than the costs - both seen and unseen - of this bailout and its economic ripples.

Watch this video. I think that Barney Frank and democrats need to bail us out. In this 2004 CSPAN video, Barney Frank says that Fanny and Freddy did not have any financial problem when republican tried to regulate Fanny and Freddy.

Instead of bailing out Wall Street, why don't we bailout Main Street. The government should buy 1 - 1 1/2 trillion dollars in good mortgages which would inject cash into banks.
We could the set an amount limit and reduce each morgage buy 1/3 to 1/2 this would free up money for Main Street month which would help the economy. We could then give a 15,000.00 tax credit to first time home buyer. Increase the deduction for Property taxes to 125% and eliminate the deduction for mortgage interest. we should also institute a consumption or value added tax. We should also encourage savings buy not taxing interest income and maybe adding some sort of credit for earning interest.

The fact of the matter is that it did not pass and now stocks have plunged almost 800 points just today.Personally, I believe the hurried attempt by the Bush administration to pass this bill backfired when we didnt give him the black check.They planted to seed of fear into everyone's head that if this bill does not pass then the market will collapse.And now that statement has been made true.Had the Bush administration not made this into an "EVERYBODY PANIC" situation,(just like the "War on Terror"....how ironic!)then the market would not have dropped as significantly as it did today.Congratulations Mr. Bush! Your Fearmongering has won again!!

Pelosi and Reid are doing a great job. Come on. Blaming these heros is just silly and you are losing perspective. Saying the Republicans jumped ship because she had one sentence in her speech that hurt their feelings. They are just not taking this thing seriously enough and we are all peons for the finanical Katrina (a perfect storm).

How hard do you think it is for Pelosi and Reid to bring 2/3 of their house democrats together for this bill? The Republicans just brought 1/3 of their house mates while this is their President, Treasury Secretary and mess. This situation was caused by the Administration and Republicans and their sponsored deregulation, inept and cronie-based management that gutting government over 7.5 yrs. This was 7.5 of pure partisonship and power mongering through the Imperial Executive and control of Congress (until Jan. 2008). Pelosi, Reid, and Frank worked with Bush and Paulson and the Republican leadership. Hard. Hard. It is hard and Pelosi, Reid, and Frank did it.

I am not surprised that the vote failed the first time around. It was tough. They need to put a little more in the bill to sweeten it up and get these guys to serve their country. There are just a handful to go and they are working hard.

The fractional reserve system has been continually eroded since it's inception. The amount of funds in reserve for most lending institutions is so low that this outcome should have been expected.

The bailout money should be put into the Federal Reserve to free up credit. The fractional reserve should be reset to at least 20%. (Consideration should be given to an even higher amount in the future.) Lending institutions should be required to replace all government money with private funds with-in 10 years. As the money in the Federal Reserve is replenished by private sources, it should go back into the general fund. (shudder)

Of course all the aforementioned regulations on CEO's and Corporate excess should be regulated, and the regulations should be signed off on for all lending institutions that wish to loan money, based on tax payer money given them in reserve. Regulations should be removed once the totals on reserve are at 100% of the fraction, and all tax payer money has been paid back in full!

*** Did anyone see the cartoon on ABC news, apprently they think we are idots, what an insult. It seems funny,reckless loans got us into this mess(so they say)now more loans, and Pres. Bush's word, with only a few days of consideration we are suppose to spend 700b on a gamble! It fells more like a takeover!

Let me spell it out for you on the partisanship since you have no clue, you're just another idiot sock puppet.

Pelosi goes up there and smashing confidence in her ability to be fair and honest, while asking an opposing political party to endorse a bill she had part in crafting and they did not (and had hardly any time to prepare and read it). This is all ignoring the fact that nearly 100 democrats voted against the bill too, if there were any honest leadership in Washington they might have been able to get their own party in with them and they could pass it on their own and let the people opposed to it on principle be the minority vote.

And Barney Frank is a moron, you're a moron, all you liberal pukes can't lead a lemming to follow you off a cliff that's your problem. Shut your mouths. Admit your own failures and stop casting blame on people before you pass a bill, good golly, that might be a good way for the SPEAKER OF THE F'ING HOUSE TO BEHAVE IN A CRISIS! If it is in fact a crisis.

This scandal originated way back in Jimmy Carter's administration (around 1977) with his "Community Reinvestment Act" (CRA) which forced lending institutions to hand out mortgage loans to those with little money. The CRA was enacted to circumvent "redlining" by the banks, where people living in certain designated neighborhoods were being denied loans on the basis of past history; people living in these localities frequently defaulted on their loans and were known to be poor risks.
The CRA was a grevious blow for private enterprise since it trampled on the rights of private business for the purpose of buying VOTES for the Democrat party.
Later on, during the Clinton administration of the 1990's, the lending rules were "relaxed" even more with mortgages being given out with virtually no questions asked. Indeed, the Clintonistas (Attorney General Janet Reno etc.) twisted the arms of these lending institutions to make them provide money to deadbeats, arguing that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would take over the bad paper and that there was really no risk at all. So the votes continued to roll in for the Democrats as the banks continued to provide "sub-prime" mortgages to people who would be unable to repay them.
By 2005, Republicans became alarmed over the dangerous financial condition of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (owning all that worthless paper) and bought a bill to the House floor which would have provided oversight and a measure of fiscal restraint on each. Alas, Democrats, led by Rep.'s Barney Frank and Cynthia McKinney, shouted it down, claiming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were doing just fine. The bill died. During this time,the chief administrators of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (both traditionally Democrat-controlled) were Democratic politicians such as Franklin Raines,Jamie Gorelik and Jim Johnson, all of whom used these institutions as personal cash cows. Raines was later forced to resign due to certain financial discrepancies (forgery, etc.) after pocketing tens of millions in tax money "bonuses".
So you see,this disaster is almost entirely the fault of the Democrat party who care not a fig for the taxpayer except for his vote.
By the way, all this information has already been published in the newspapers and can be easily confirmed by anyone who can read. That usually leaves out you Democrats.

I am amazed at the armchair quarterbacks here that are willing to put the future of our country at risk based on an ideology that they know little of, when there is a direct correllation to this crisis in our own history.

If they knew more about the stock market crash of 1929 and Herbert Hoover and what happened afterward, along with the huge heartache and suffering my millions caused by the Great Depression and what FDR did to get us out of it, I doubt they would be so brash about the mindless "just let the market handle it" mantra.

I'll make a prediction based on what happened last time. If the bill is not passed and soon, in six months, about half of the banks will have closed. No buyouts.. I mean closed. We are quickly reaching the point where there are no banks left to buyout anything. At that point the 45 Billion in the FDIC fund will be a "drop in the bucket" and people will loose real money from these banks. Additionally, these banks that remain will use every trick in the book to "call" mortgages and other loans and there will be no refinancing. If you don't have cash, you will loose your house, car, etc. as they call these loans. Keep in mind, that they can do this on most loans if you are late with one payment, and they can "loose" your payment. As business is not able to use credit, unemployment will rise to far more than 40%. You think I am kidding?

This happened, in the deporession, and the depression was caused by the same thing. At that time, Herbert Hoover wanted to let the "free market" handle it. Back then, most were "employed" on farms, so the 40% unemployment # is probably VERY low.

The depression noghtmare didn't end until they "threw them out" for a "new deal" and FDR. People starved. FDR put the country back to work, and put regulations in place to keep the depression from reoccurring. Most of those regulations stood until very recently. When they were removed, we crashed (credit) again.

Here is a real mind bender.... THIS time... less than 1% are able to grow their own food. In 1930 70% were able to...

You have to hand it to Speaker Pelosi and Senator Obama...They are master politicians who know how to manipulate the political process, the media and the American public.

How is this a Republican problem???

95 Democrats in a DNC controlled Congress voted against the bailout...That is a fact. If half of them had voted for approval it would have passed.

They would have voted to cover their own tracks. Because it was the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 pushed through Congress by the Clinton Administration and Chris Dodd and signed into law by Bill Clinton that kicked the deregulation into high gear. No it was not Phil Gramm despite the factual inaccuracies reported by mainstream medial.

Look it up!

The facts say this is a DNC created problem.

That said, they are all incompetent for not finding a way to work together to resolve this. Yes, equally incompetent.

There are so many poorly informed posts here.
Intervention is absolutely needed.

It is ironic and deeply disturbing that this has to be done. It is unfair, completely unfair and rewards robber barons and hurts all of us who labor for a living. However, it has to be done or the economy will nose dive (TANK!!), it is already cracking like a weak levee. If Asian investment is pulled out of the country, the levees will break. We can't afford the lack of confidence. We are all in the flood zone- deep in the flood zone. Some of us have protection, but most of us don't. I don't!
Support the bailout to restore market confidence and infuse cash in the credit market. We need to keep the credit market healthy. This touches everything. It isn't isolated to particular financial institutions that caused the problem.

Learn about the financial situation and the bail-out (buy-out).

Most of the bad mortgages are not through Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae. They are from other private lenders, overwhelmingly so.

I wholeheartedly agree that poor marketing was the downfall. Besides the fact that most people thought that it was simply $700B flushed away rather than a program where likely over 80% will be recovered, the fact that everyone keeps referring to it as a 'financial bailout' did not help!!!
To the 'Average Joe' that just sounds like money in the pockets of big bank CEOs, when that is far from the case.
If the media had commonly referred to it as an 'Economic Relief Plan,' which is what it really is, this bill would have passed by a wide margin.

McCain said the night before that he had come to "make sure the votes were there to pass this important bill"..

Before the vote, the leader of the republican party said "they have the votes". During the vote, the republican whip (person responsible for counting votes) said "wey have the votes to pass this bill"...

there is an easy answer here. don't know who ben pershing is, but those of us who have spent many years covering congress know how it played out, because this is gingrich republican tactic.
house gop and democrats were faced with a tough vote against the wishes of a laregly uninformed american public. neither was going to take the heat alone. gop leaders were willing to join the democrats, but there are gops legitimately opposed to any such bailout and its tentacles and many others running away from bush. they objected to the gop leadership, the leadership had to mollify them, so it saw a win-win situation. it negotiated for democratic and administration concessions to appease its members, but knowing they still wouldn't vote for it, had no intention of helping to approve the final package. when the vote came, the gop walked away from it, leaving the democrats to take the heat alone, which of course they would not, so it failed. score one for the gop gingrich politics. and that's what you get when you keep sending those people here.

I wholeheartedly agree that poor marketing was the downfall. Besides the fact that most people thought that it was simply $700B flushed away rather than a program where likely over 80% will be recovered, the fact that everyone keeps referring to it as a 'financial bailout' did not help!!!
To the 'Average Joe' that just sounds like money in the pockets of big bank CEOs, when that is far from the case.
If the media had commonly referred to it as an 'Economic Relief Plan,' which is what it really is, this bill would have passed by a wide margin.

It failed because it was a bad plan. Paulson was going to get entirely too much power in that deal. No accountability against him. He could buy the bad loans at any price he chose to do. He could buy from whoever he chose to, from any number of foreign banks if he chose to.

He is dead-set against what many economists and the Republicans suggest. Why do you think that is? Makes me wonder how much money he stood to make if his plan was passed... Can you just imagine the dollar signs that were dancing around in his head? He apparently still wants to do the same deal.

President Bush needs to sit down with a team of top economists and take some other points of view about how to go about solving our "ill-liquid" problems.

In 2004, in committee, the Republicans warned that the whole Freddie Mac Fannie Mae situation was a time bomb. Barney Frank and the other Democrats pooh poohed the Republicans, with Democrat Frank saying "I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound". Now, after this whole thing blows, the Democrats try to pin it on the Republicans. And, the liberal media lets them get away with it in order to help Obama, who also benefitted big time from Freddie and Fannie. That's right, Obama took in second most from Freddie/Fannie, with Democrat Chris Dodd being number one. You want change, you will not get it with an Obama administration and this corrupt Democrat Congress.

The bailout is a problem for both democrats and republicans. The goal is as much to infuse money as it is confidence. The behavior of the house is creaky and lacking in confidence. They are all worried about their jobs or they are ideologues or are partisons with their machinations (e.g., Eric Cantor).

Both Democrats and Republicans have to approve this bill to restore confidence. My, this is a bailout requested by a Republican President and Republican Treasury Secretary. The Republican party has fragmented into factions with no clear leadership and it shows by the bill not passing.

The people who say that the Democrats got us into this should come together to get us out don't know how government works nor do they know who was in power for the last 7.5 yrs. Democrats only gained the veto override in January 2008. They gain the fillibuster override in January 2009 (after the Nov. election). There has been a long haul of deregulation by the republican party (shown by outside nonpartison groups who have audited government) brought on by multiple methods, deregulation, putting cronies into government positions and failing to prosecute or audit, increase of lobbyists and their influence, fundamental increase in the use of the veto and fillibuster, and the highest level of partisonship that has happened over 60 yrs. Books are written about this. This all changes in January 2009.
However we have a hurricane in process now and our levees are dissolving. We need to act and not just sit by the side and say, "government shouldn't bail out robber barons". That's all good and well, but it drowns everyone.

Paulson has a net worth according to Forbes of about $700 million. One Thousandth of percent of the $700 billion bailout.

It is in a blind trust but his holdings being a man from wall street, our all stocks (most likely Goldman Sachs and some assorted mutual funds.) His entire net worth is at risk. If he gets his bailout. His $700 million is saved. Paulson will be the beneficiary of .1% of the bailout.

Additionally, in 2006, he gave $100 million of Goldman Sachs stock to his family, which they still own.

Now you see why got down on bended knee...so he could pickpocket middle class American!

His actions are really beginning to stink and his bailout scheme is smelling worse and more dubious by the day!

Why did Paulson help out AIG help and not Lehman Brothers?

According to the September 27, 2008 NEW YORK TIMES "Although it was not widely known, Goldman, a Wall Street stalwart that had seemed immune to its rivals' woes, was A.I.G.'s largest trading partner, according to six people close to the insurer who requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. A collapse of the insurer threatened to leave a hole of as much as $20 billion in Goldman's side, several of these people said."

Perhaps, Paulson wanted to protect his shares (about $700 million held in a blind trust and his families $100 million shares) of Goldman Sachs.

$700 Billion...Are you kidding? There are approx $600 TRILLION of derivatives contracts active in the marketplace that are TORPEDOING these financial institutions one-by-one. In other words, you ain't seen nuthin' yet! We couldn't buy our way out of this financial clusterpuck if we tried...The entire wealth if the US is $57 Trillion, so you do the math.

Everyone should give THE ARCHITECT OF THIS MESS - Fmr Sen PHIL GRAMM - a nice e-mail or 3am phone call to ask if he's finally made enough money to wipe his arse with $1,000 bills for the rest of his pathetic life. One would think that when they torpedoed ENRON (when his lovely wife was running the Board), he would've been beyond rich from the resulting weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Any more questions about why the Bailout FAILED? Be sure to give Hussein Obama Advisor Franklin Raines some credit for cooking Fannie's books in order to abscond with $90 million in fraudulent BONUSES!! They're ALL FRIGGIN CROOKS!

This is what happens when you turn Public Service into a LIFELONG CAREER! The Founding Fathers wanted us to go to Wash, serve, then GO HOME and back into private life...These cats are ALL LIFERS!

Every single one of them SHOULD BE VOTED OUT! We're going to have to rebuild the World Economy from scratch...So why not clear the Capitol Chalkboard too!?!? I'm glad the Bill was voted down, but you'd better strap in because the "Weapons of Financial Mass Destruction" have just started detonating. There's much, much more damage that is coming very soon...And unlike the '29 depression, you can watch it all right on your big screen TV!!!

Anyone who states that 150 top economists do not support this plan please explain to me who they are, what school of economics they practice (Do you know what I mean by this?), and how you believe the American people are better off letting businesses fail and putting our friends and neighbors out of work than by saving them with a plan that will allow us to re-coup many of our losses. Maybe it is that you don't understand how this works.

Don't cry when you check your 401(k) and see that you can't retire. Don't complain that you didn't receive your paycheck this week and don't blame immigrants when you can't find a job to replace the one that was lost...maybe one of those top 150 economists will create a job for you. The only problem is you'll have to move overseas to get it.

Strong KoolAid??? I seem to remember Speaker Pelosi claiming victory on a deal earlier as well! Before her pre-vote tirade that irked not only Republicans but 95 Democrats as well! 95 (40%) of a House they control.

It's interesting how the DNC can twist the facts in order to manipulate the politics. If 25 of 95 had voted for passage it would have passed...bottom line.

But don't ignore the most important facts because you can't run from them:

They would have voted to cover their own tracks. Because it was the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 pushed through Congress by the Clinton Administration and Chris Dodd and signed into law by Bill Clinton that kicked the deregulation into high gear. No it was not Phil Gramm despite the factual inaccuracies reported by mainstream medial. Look it up!The facts say this is a DNC created problem.

Even a lifelong Democrat like Chris Cuomo on ABC said, "What is Speaker Pelosi talking about when she says this crisis came out of nowhere"? She voted for the Financial Services Modernization Act.

He said this to President Clinton in an on air interview who signed the bill into law and President Clinton did not push back. He just said they need to pass a resolution to help the American People now.

Before I spend that kind of money I would really like to know who is responsible and how it happened. And, no, I do not blame republicans for not voting for it, or the democrats that didn't vote for it either. Pelosi and Reid seem to be looking for political cover. Bush asked several years ago for oversight of Fannie and Freddie and Franks and other democrats said nothing wrong here and called the people testifying before his committee liars. Who received money from Fannie and Freddie, in his short tenure Obama was number 2, with Dodd I believe being number 1. And talk of golden parachutes, look who bailed from Fannie and Freddie after making millions. I know if you can read my comments then you are computer literate enough to dig out the basic facts, unless you are afraid you won't like what you find. Oh yes, nearly forgot, McCain identified this problem several years ago and asked for Regulation of Fannie and Freddie, guess what, beaten down by Dems.

The bill failed because the reps' constituents hammered them to vote against it. They each received thousands of phone calls and faxes and probably tens of thousands of emails from people in their districts telling them to vote no.